One cut deeper
by Jedi Carpet
Summary: A continuation in the timeline after the events in Destiny's Call. Jaina is dispatched by the Jedi Council to investigate some unsettling pirate activity and ends up in over her head, but not in any way she had expected. Meanwhile Sekava begins to discover his own secrets, some of which will prove disasterous to his prey. Rated M for violent and sadistic content.
1. Prologue

**A/N:** I know you've been waiting a long time for this, but I'm finally at the point where I feel I can start posting it. It's a form of motivation to complete it, too. I have 5 sections to finish writing, 4 under one point of view, 1 under another. After that I'll read the whole thing over and see how well it flows, edit it, etc...and then see if my beta can take a look at it. It might take a while before I post again...but I want you all to know that this story isn't dead and give you a hint as to what is coming. I came up with the name yesterday, and I think it fits perfectly. We'll be looking at about...20 chapters or so. I've already started planning what to do with the story after this one, and that one has me _really_ excited.

I've decided to post two chapters to start. Together they provide a lot of meaning for the backbone of this whole story, so I felt it was important to put both forward. Besides, the first on its own is not enough to set the scene properly. I hope you enjoy them. The story really starts after these two, and I think they're as polished as they'll ever be anyway. You'll see by the DP that there is a lot coming...

* * *

DP  
Primary  
Jacen Solo, Human male Jedi Master, King of the Hapes Consortium  
Jaina Solo, Human female Jedi Master  
Tahiri Velia, Human female Jedi Knight  
Eriana Fostenon, Human female Jedi Knight, Black Vornskr Leader  
Sekava, Human male Sith Lord wannabe  
Masakra, Bothan male Apprentice to Sekava  
Womprat/HK-47, The galaxy's most freaken awesome assassin droid  
Soora Bulq/Marvis Cree, Weequay male Sith Lord/Leader of Galactic Alliance

Secondary  
_Jedi  
_Tenel Ka, Human Female Jedi Knight, Queen of the Hapes Consortium  
Lowbacca/Lowie, Wookiee male Jedi Master  
Nelani Dinn, Human female Jedi

_Mandalorians  
_Lanos, Mandalorian warrior, gold armour (leader)  
Parmis, Mandalorian warrior, blue armour (secondary leader)  
Blade, Mandalorian warrior, red armour (melee combat specialist)  
Trigger, Mandalorian warrior, black armour (heavy weapons/demolitions)  
Squeak, Mandalorian technician, blue armour (Tech specialist)

_Black Vornskrs  
_Stragoron, Black Vornskr human male, General (Platinum)  
Rjon, Black Vornskr human male, 5th Raider Squad leader (Silver)  
Raggy, Black Vornskr human male, 5th Raider Squad (Copper)  
Lana, Black Vornskr human female, 5th Raider Squad (Copper)  
Mala, Black Vornskr human female, 5th Raider Squad (Copper)

_Survivors  
_Erinn, female human survivor  
Cora, female human survivor  
Marlene Gosular, female Bothan survivor  
Renato Gosular, male bothan survivor  
Nivix, Gand male survivor  
Annor Amadis, Human male survivor

* * *

The abandoned town hall of Orshan boasted the tallest structure of the small Bimmisaari island city, a radio tower that offered a perfect vantage point to observe just about anything on the island. Not that there was much to see. Orshan was best known for its ties to the dregs of society, and those dregs often operated in secrecy. At top of that tower there stood a person who might see events of little significance, like drunken idiots stumbling from bars to the space port, peddlers selling their wares, or even the odd brawl if he looked hard enough.

But for once something truly interesting could be seen. If that person had good vision, he would see that on the far eastern side of the island there were two Mandalorians, one in gold and the other in blue, crouching on rooftops while firing a steady stream of blaster bolts at a target below. That person may also notice their target: a dark-haired man with a red lightsaber deflecting those blaster bolts while sparring against a blond woman who was wielding a blue lightsaber.

If the one standing on that tower had very sharp vision, three others in Mandalorian armour would be seen sprawled out on the old stone road, unconscious, injured or dead.

And if that person had exceptional vision and a keen understanding of combat dynamics, he would see the blond woman was struggling to keep up in the fierce battle while the man with the red lightsaber clearly had the upper hand despite being outnumbered.

Finally, from that vantage point, if that person had sniper rifle, he could see a great many of those details and probably do a lot of damage.

Especially if that person happened, at one point in their life, to be a Mandalorian sniper or Jedi.

Or both.

! #$%^&*()

Tahiri Velia deflected Sekava's lightsaber as two blaster bolts came from either side of her, but the deranged Sith dodged one and absorbed the other on his bare palm. After over a year of hunting down Sekava, Tahiri and "Team Awesome," the Mandalorians that Jacen had once joined a couple years ago, had finally caught up to him. Plagued with a combination of insanity and surprising cunningness, Sekava had wandered from spaceport to spaceport searching for a way to best kill Jacen Solo in a desperate and random quest for revenge. Nobody really knew what Jacen had done to fracture the young Sith student's delicate psyche or if he was merely a scapegoat, but Tahiri and her team knew he was dangerous and must be stopped. While difficult to predict, Sekava's path had been easy to follow – merely follow the reports of a man with a red lightsaber slaughtering people. Spaceport authorities had neither the weapons nor skills to apprehend a berserk Sith, and never had the opportunity to lay a trap, so Sekava got away every time, sometimes scarce minutes before Tahiri and her team arrived.

"The traitor," Sekava sneered at Tahiri, finally recognizing his opponent. He carefully kept her between him and one of the Mandalorian gunners while keeping his lightsaber ready to deflect blaster bolts from the other. "Didn't I kill you?"

Tahiri had no desire to speak to the man who once strapped her to a slab of rock, blasted her with lightning, shoved a lightsaber into her rib cage and then tore it out through her side, leaving her for dead. The damage had taken over a month to heal with the help of the Mandalorians' basic med skills, but the deep scar left a lasting reminder of her humiliation at his hands. Her response was much more direct than words.

She lunged at him in concert with another blaster bolt salvo, trying to spear him through his gut, but Sekava caught her blade on his, stepped towards her past the blaster bolts, and slammed his left palm against her jaw. The blow sent her tumbling to the ground, barely holding onto her lightsaber with the presence of mind to keep the blade away from her body. Before she could recover from the staggering blow, her lightsaber was gone and she distantly heard two clattering impacts against the ground mirrored with a couple of grunts over her ear-comm that told her Lanos and Parmis were the source of those impacts. Tahiri wrenched her eyes open and saw a red blade pointed at her nose.

"Let me see if I can do this right this time," Sekava said in a thoughtful tone that Tahiri did not like. His humming blade hovered just above her face, buzzing like a swarm of angry insects. "Shall I chop through your eyes to blind you to what will follow, or shall I do it bit..."

He flicked his blade toward her calf and severed the leg. Her scream echoed down the empty street.

"by..."

Another flick, another scream, and she lost her other leg just below the knee.

"bit?"

Sekava's head snapped up and he flicked his blade across his chest to catch a pair of blaster bolts before he could harm her further. Three other blaster bolts impacted him; two in the abdomen, one on the left arm. A second set of blaster bolts burned through the air as he quickly side stepped the salvo despite his injuries.

Tahiri called her lightsaber to her hand and ignited it to defend herself despite the sheer agony she was in, but Sekava was already running from the sniper attack.

This was not a good day.

~! #$%^&*()

Tahiri forced herself to sit up to look at her severed legs. It was weird looking at them as if they were no longer a part of her, but as offending objects that had been thrown aside and no longer deserved to be part of the whole. But they were still as much hers as the pain that flared through her.

"Tahiri!" Someone called, a voice distinctively deepened by a Mandalorian helmet, but not one of the team she had joined a year ago. The armour was unrecognizable – black, save a green trim that looked vaguely like a Corellian Jedi robe with various coloured bands on the arms artfully painted to look like ribbons. Unsure of what to do, she awkwardly held her lightsaber between herself and the oncoming enigma, but did not ignite it. Whoever this person was, his blaster rifle was slung across his shoulder by the strap and his pistol was holstered. He dropped to his knees beside her and held her under the neck with his right hand.

"Lie down; your injuries are pretty bad," He said. He reached up with his left hand to pull the helmet off, revealing the face of Jacen Solo. "Womprat is bringing the ship around and I have a bacta tank on board. I'll get you back to Hapes for treatment."

"You..."

"I know," Jacen smiled the lopsided Solo grin. "I've known that you and Jysella were alive for a few months now. Long story, not willing to share. Sorry. The important thing is you're alive and we can heal you up. And I already picked Jysella up from Korriban. Corran was quite happy to see her back, as bad of shape as she was in."

"The others?"

"They're starting to come around," Jacen said. "Everyone got pretty banged up, but you're the worst off."

"Roshi, you rotting piece of bantha dung!"

Trigger's distinctive voice boomed across the street, barely drowning out the metallic clattering of his Mandalorian armour as he ran toward Jacen. He barely got to his feet when the larger man pulled him into the air with a bear hug and dropped him to his feet, ruffling Jacen's hair with his armoured hand.

"We thought you were a stinkin' traitor!"

Blade finally caught up to them and slapped Jacen hard across the face. After a second of looking at the shock on his face, she pulled him into as tight a hug as their armoured bodies would allow and kissed him hard on the cheek.

"You crazy gundark! You have a lot of nerve showing your face around us!"

"I could put the helmet back on?"

Before the others could say anything more, the _Solo Quest _swooped in above them and hovered loudly. The ramp dropped and a hover gurney lowered itself to the ground. Jacen and Trigger eased Tahiri onto the gurney and Blade placed her severed legs on it.

"Contact me in two days," Jacen called over the noise of the hovering YT-2300. He tossed Trigger a data card and pressed a button to raise the gurney back up to the ship. He held onto the frame of it, riding it up. "Until then, keep after Sekava but don't engage him. We'll get that bastard yet!"


	2. Ghosts of the Past

_Months later..._

* * *

98.2% to target.

Jacen looked at the words and sighed, not bothering to look at the close up image. If the number was any indication, it would be identical to how it looked over the last three days that the device spat out the number 98.2%. The pocket-sized portable scanner that Tenel Ka had had made for him by the best scientists in the Hapes Consortium was designed to examine the damaged part of his brain that prevented him from using the Force. The result of his last trip through time caused more damage than Vergere had predicted and he ended up in a coma for three days. That was three hundred and eighty four days ago. At this rate of healing, he should be healed in about eight days. If the rate held up. He seemed to heal in spurts some days, and dreadfully slow other days. Part of him wondered if the sensor was malfunctioning or if the brain really healed like that. No scientist seemed to have any insight since there was no baseline case similar to what Jacen was going through – most tissue in humans healed over within a couple months at most.

He tossed the sensor back on his desk and walked out onto the balcony attached to his office. Leaning on the rail overlooking the vast gardens of Fountain Palace, Jacen tried to count the night lights that made the pathways glow in an effort to clear his mind from the frustrations he had been suffering through for over a year, but his thoughts kept coming back to haunt him.

Jaina could not figure out why he was no longer contacting her through their twin bond. He could only spar with Tenel Ka without the Force, which made using lightsabers significantly riskier. And he had the scars to prove it. Master Skywalker had continually contacted him, insisting that he help out with Jedi missions, which he continually refused on the grounds of staying with his son and Tenel Ka to protect them. Some of those refusals had cost Jedi their lives, and Jacen knew a lot of blame was being put on his shoulders behind closed doors. Even during the mission seven months before when Tahiri had been injured, Jacen had felt slow and inadequate. It was not a stretch of the imagination to look back at the events that day and believe that they were incredibly lucky that everyone survived.

Jacen sighed to himself and buried his face in his hands as if he could make his problems disappear by covering his eyes. A child's effort, at best. Looking back up over the garden, Jacen thought about what he had tried to do to make things better.

Lanos and his team continued to hunt Sekava, trying to slow down and keep the disturbed man too busy to create the future Jacen knew awaited this galaxy should they fail. After six weeks of rehabilitation under the care of Hapes' best doctors, Tahiri had returned to the team. Trapped in his own disability and responsibilities, Jacen could not join them. So he did the next best thing to to help them: He feed them as much intelligence as he could from his sources and kept them stocked with supplies and weapons. But nothing seemed to be enough to take down Sekava. He needed to be out there. He needed to be healed and trained up and on the front lines where he belonged.

"Worrying about it will not help it heal faster."

Jacen turned to face his wife. Her beautiful, but impassive face was framed by her braided red hair which seemed to glow in the moonlight. He could sense concern radiating from her as the Force teased him at the edges of his perception as if willing him to look for more. Even though he could not use the Force without reinjuring himself, his connection to it did not prevent the Force from interacting with _him_.

"Sekava needs to be taken out."

"That, again?" Tenel Ka asked.

The disappointment in her voice was almost hidden. _Almost_. He knew her too well to ignore the tiniest of clues that slipped past her careful guard. She closed the distance between them and grabbed his left elbow. He instinctively put his hands on her waist. It was their unique way of telling each other they have each other's full attention, that he would not let the loss of her left arm be an excuse for him to pull away from her when she wanted his attention. Her pale grey eyes seemed to bore into his soul, using the look of worry to tip the only drill that could reach his heart.

"Jacen, you are not well enough yet. You must heal first. You've said it yourself a hundred times."

"We should've told Uncle Luke everything instead of holding those datacards back," Jacen replied. "He could have sent others after Sekava. Tahiri and the others can't handle him on their own. They're not even slowing him down."

"Others would not be capable of stopping him. Only you or Master Skywalker should face that man."

"Tell that to Tahiri," Jacen grunted. "She doesn't want anyone to know she's still alive until she comes home with his head on a pike and his lightsaber on her belt."

"Then the galaxy will have to wait for you to get better before it can be fixed," Tenel Ka said wisely and stepped back, tugging him by the elbow. "Now, I believe your son would like his father to put him to bed."

"Of course," Jacen said with a weak smile, taking her hand and letting her lead him away.

~! #$%^&*()

Phantom pain shattered the nightmare and woke Tahiri with a scream. She frantically pulled at the sheets entangled in her legs, calming only when she was sure they were still attached. The burning sensation of her legs being severed echoed through her mind despite the injury being fully healed by the best doctors in the Hapes Consortium.

The dreams did it. Or, more precisely, _the_ dream. The same one that kept haunting her every night and turned sleep a living hell. Finally calm enough to act rationally, she disentangled the sheets from her legs and sat up on the side of the bed.

The cold deck plating under her feet felt good – a reminder that her legs were still there – but the chill that ran up her spine when she saw the two scars on her naked legs prompted her to find her cabin slippers. After successfully putting them on, she stood up and crossed the room to look out of the viewport that framed the familiar swirling nexus of hyperspace.

She sighed deeply and put her head against the oval window frame, staring at the nothing outside as the gentle hum of the _Squawking Mynock_'s engines pulsed through her skull.

Being discovered by Jacen was probably the best thing that had happened to her vendetta against Sekava. She was determined to find and eliminate the threat that Sekava posed before she could return to the Jedi Order, but it was not until that horrible day that she realized how alone they were in this quest. Jacen had provided information and funding to keep the crew of the _Mynock_ on their relentless journey, but even then they still failed to catch the crazy Sith. Every time they caught a whisper of his whereabouts, usually a report of some random people being slaughtered – random people she felt she had personally failed – he was already long gone before they could find him. His destinations were so completely random that not even Squeak could devise some sort of convoluted mathematical model to predict his wanderings.

_Things were so much easier when you were here, Anakin._ Tahiri thought. For a fleeting second she thought she saw his face in the swirls of hyperspace, but she knew her mind was merely playing tricks on her. _It always felt like we were unstoppable together. Now, everything I do ends up a failure. Why can't I be as strong as you were?_

She remembered when Lanos had recognized her resolve as the veil disguising her troubled emotions and decided to do something about it. She could still remember the haunted glint of worry in his eyes as he carefully pulled her aside one day after a rather vicious training segment and made her spill every last secret thought and feeling she had about the mission.

_Worry, because he thought I was going to the Dark Side and would kill him for asking,_ Tahiri recalled. _I don't even know what side I'm on anymore._

Thrown in on a quest to hunt down possibly the most psychotic killer in the galaxy with a team of defected Mandalorians that had reluctantly saved her life, she definitely was not following the path of the Jedi. But it was not her own gain she was after, and she was not after the command or praise of her team. When Lanos stripped her walls down and forced her to face the truth behind her motivations, the tears brought with them the truth she could not admit to herself.

It was for Anakin that she fought.

His love. His memory. And his family.

When she faced the truth, she knew could not live so long as this person was trying to kill Jacen and take away another part of the only family she had ever known.

~! #$%^&*()

Seventeen. An odd number. A prime number. The age kids on Corellia can drive. What the hell is the point of putting _seventeen_ rivets to hold that part of the bunk to the bulkhead? Why not eighteen? Eighteen makes more sense. It is even. Stronger than seventeen. It is divisible by one and two and three and six and nine. It has smaller parts that makes it whole, not like _seventeen_. Seventeen _just does not make sense_!

Sekava shook his head and pulled himself up to sit on the edge on his bunk. He put his elbows on his knees and buried his eyes against his palms to try pushing out the insanity of thinking about the number of rivets holding a bunk together. Before he knew it, tears were streaming down his wrists and he sobbed uncontrollably for what felt like an eternity. He stopped crying long enough to look up and rest his chin on his palms, staring blankly at the empty bulkhead two metres away.

What had he done? He tried escaping a life of petty crime and wandering around the galaxy looking for the next meal or mark, and tried _doing_ something with himself. What had he become?

A killer. No, a killer could have justification. Defense of self or others. Orders. Accident. What he became was worse.

He became a _murderer_.

Morris. Hashi. There were so many others. None of them deserved it. He knew it. Deep down, he knew none of these people deserved what he did to them. And it was his fault. He wanted this. The life of a Sith Lord was to have power over others and control of his own destiny. It meant to live without fear.

But why, in these moments of quiet, did he fear _himself_ so much?

Sekava wiped his eyes with the back of his hand and looked away from the blank wall. His eyes fell to the lightsaber lying beside the door. With a small tug the hilt flew across the room to his hand and he stared at the cool chunk of metal in his hand. He did not study the design, nor turn it on. He knew what it looked like. The hilt was a black metal cylinder with the bottom flat, and the top cut off at 45 degrees. There was a rubber grip at the bottom, several knobs, the activator plate, the charging port...

He did not see any of this. He knew too well what the hilt of the weapon that emitted the deadly red blade looked like. His eyes fixed to a series of small scratches below the silver ring of metal a couple centimetres below the angled top of the hilt, slowly counting them.

Each of those ticks had a face or name in Sekava's mind. Unlike so many other things, they would not escape his mind. They were trapped in his mind like dead rats in a durasteel box, unable to escape even if he could figure out a way to pry that box open to let them out.

_Morris_.

The first tick. The one that made him realize he had nowhere else to go. The one that made him realize all he could do was submit to the will of the Sith Lords. The one that represented someone who was so innocent, so fragile...forced into a horrible situation he had no hope to escape from and no place being in. Morris had trusted Sekava, and it got him killed.

_Hashi_.

The second tick. Could she be the closest thing to love he had ever known? She made him see the truths that opened his mind to the reality that tortured him every day. She helped him see the key to his path of redemption.

_The others_...they were the path paved in blood that led him to where he was today. The ones that started the path that would lead him to victory over the chains that bound him to mediocrity and a lifetime of failure.

As he slowly counted the ticks, the emotions of the slaughters came surging back, reminding him of his true calling. The emotions brought with them the voices that called to him and whispered to him. Taunting him constantly through the night and day, beckoning him to push on and destroy the one that will set him free.

_Jacen Solo._ The voices whispered over and over and over again. _You will destroy Jacen Solo. You _must_ destroy Jacen Solo!_

Reaching the last tick Sekava screamed in fury. He threw the lightsaber handle across the room where it bounced off the wall and clattered to the ground. Sekava fell to his knees and cried in his palms again.

"_Seventeen!_" Sekava screamed. "_Why does the galaxy hate me?!_"

~! #$%^&*()

Jab.

Jab, cross.

Jab, cross, uppercut.

Jab, cross, jab, jab, cross, hook, uppercut, hook, hook, cross, jab, cross, overhand strike, spinning back kick, cross, jab, elbow, elbow, knee, knee, knee…

"Easy, Dad," Parmis warned from behind the hundred kilo bag full of sand. "You'll break the bag."

Lanos grunted in response, but backed off to bounce on the balls of his feet for a moment to let his son get a better grip on the bag. His training regimen, based more on pure resolve and determination at his age, was a metaphor for his loyal team of Mandalorian defectors. After a year of living in close quarters in relative isolation and putting up with everyone's personality quirks, the team still remained devoted to finding and eliminating Sekava.

He really did not know why they had devoted themselves to this task. Why would Mandalorians want to take out a Sith Lord if there was no bounty to gain from it? There had to be more to it than simply being bored. They had battles with the crazy bastard that they had lost miserably despite their considerable combat experience and specialized weaponry. Sekava was as unpredictable and dangerous a foe as any that any Mandalorian had ever faced. And this team even had a Jedi.

Lanos attacked the bag again, but fired his punches and kicks on autopilot as his mind raced through their situation.

A _Jedi_. Or a _fallen_ Jedi. Or whatever the hell she was. Tahiri, the former spy among the Sith who they had saved from certain death on Korriban, was their only hope at taking down Sekava. And her last fight had left her dismembered and at his mercy had it not been for Roshi.

_No, his name is Jacen_.

The young Jedi was still, in Lanos's mind, a Mandalorian. He had fought with them, taken their side, and reminded them about what being a true Mandalorian was all about. Yet he was an enemy deceiving them at the time.

With a flurry of punches, Lanos realized why they hunted that Sith Lord – it was to protect Jacen and honour his memory as a warrior who helped teach them who they should be.

_Honourable_ Mandalorians. Not guns for hire. Warriors who did the right thing for the right reasons.

Lanos hopped back again at the thought and bounced on his feet, loosening his muscles before his next attack.

Taking out a threat to every innocent bystander in the galaxy who got near the psychotic killer was certainly the right thing to do.

And, as much as they were doing something right, the thrill of the hunt still made it _fun_.


	3. Beacons from afar

A/N: Thanks for the warm welcome..and sorry about the extended delay. T'is the season, y'know?

JR, nice to see you again! Hope you enjoy this one :)

Sioux, you're absolutely right. I'll change it around going forward (and make that change backwards when I get time). Sekava...if he is being programmed, he's doing it to himself. Or the Force is. Even I don't know entirely what is going on inside that guy's noggin at times...

Onimiman, I've never had anyone "finish" one of my stories before...I feel very honoured to think someone would want to continue my work :)

* * *

The perimeter had been difficult, but not impossible to circumvent. Guards that were fanatically loyal to the Queen patrolled the interior of the defensive grid in irregular intervals, adding to the patrol of security droids that stomped along at very precise regular intervals. If one could reach the first wall and get on top of it without being noticed, brief windows of opportunity would appear for mere seconds between the guards and the droids that would allow one to traverse to the second wall that was defended by motion-activated blaster turrets, and through the randomly targeted optical laser trip sensors to reach the moat fifty metres away. That moat, filled with vicious piranhas from Gallinore, travelled along the outside perimeter of the tall, slick castle walls and extended around the Royal Garden for an extra layer of safety.

For someone with the Force at their command, it was not much of a challenge.

While swimming among the piranhas toward the garden, the Force helped keep the hungry little fish focused on things other than eating the human among them. It was then relatively easy to jump out of the moat over the wall and sprint to the bushes that surrounded the Royal Garden.

From that vantage point, it was easy enough to locate the Force user somewhere near the middle of the garden. For one, he was not even trying to hide his presence. Two, the sounds of a young child giggling and laughing gave away their position.

Mindful of any potential guards that might appear, the human carefully approached the sound of the child and his father playing until the young child crawled around the last corner and bumped into her legs. She reached down to pick up the child, who began to cry in her ear.

"Jaina!" Jacen appeared around the bush, looking for his wailing son. "When did you get here? And why are you all wet?"

"Just now," Jaina said, passing young Anakin to her brother. Anakin immediately stopped crying. "I've been trying to reach you for over a week, but you haven't responded."

"And you thought you'd swim through our moat to get here?" Jacen asked as he awkwardly pulled his communicator from his pocket and checked the display. He quickly shoved it back into his pocket before the reaching baby could snag it from his grip. "No messages."

"I meant through the Force," she said, wringing the water out of her hair. "You haven't been on the twin bond for ages."

Jacen nodded toward Anakin. "I've been chasing a baby around. Poop doesn't clean itself."

"You don't have servants for cleaning poop?"

Two guards rushed up to Jacen and Jaina and held their weapons at the ready, but looked unsure of  
how to deal with Jaina.

"Your highness, we did not see her approach!"

"She's my sister; just throw her in the brig for a couple hours so she can cool down."

"Jacen!" Jaina exclaimed as the enthusiastic guards grabbed her arms.

"I'm kidding, guys," Jacen rolled his eyes and chuckled along with Anakin as the baby giggled. "Please go let Tenel Ka know we have a visitor and have a guest room prepared."

The guards disappeared and the twins found a fountain to sit at while Anakin crawled on the ground around them, picking the beautiful flowers.

"Cute kid," Jaina said. "He's grown so much."

"Since he was born?" Jacen asked, smiling as his son sniffed a flower and threw it aside. "You need to visit more often."

"Master Skywalker sent me," Jaina said darkly. "He's getting annoyed with you snubbing him all the time."

"I have a baby, Jaina." He gestured toward Anakin to highlight the obvious. "Do you expect me to drop everything and leave Tenel Ka alone with him because Uncle Luke wants me to deliver a shipment of juri juice to the coreworlds?"

"We both know he wouldn't ask if it wasn't important," Jaina said defensively. "And Tenel Ka has a hundred servants. She'd hardly be alone with him. But that's not why I'm here. What do you know about Eriana's current whereabouts and activities?"

"Eriana? The last I heard from her she's doing supply runs between the Empire and Jedi-friendly sectors," Jacen said, not entirely truthfully. If his trip through time taught him anything, Eriana would be leading the pirate group known as the Black Vornskrs by now. "She said she wanted a break from teaching lightsaber drills and wanted something new."

Jaina extracted a datapad from inside her robe and pressed a button before passing it to him. A grainy video started to play.

"We got this from one of our operatives inside the Black Vornskr pirate group," Jaina explained. "Over the last two months their activity has gone up dramatically and their membership has grown tenfold. And we think we know why."

The video showed the image of a blond woman and two men looking over a tactical display table, obviously strategizing about something. They each had the distinctive Black Vornskr skull patch on their shoulders that showed their allegiance.

"You think that's her?" Jacen tried handing the datapad back to Jaina, but she refused. "That could be anyone."

"Keep watching."

Clearly giving orders to the others, the blond woman pointed to several displays and the men walked away. She then turned toward the camera, and Jaina jabbed a button with her finger to freeze the image. The image was slightly blurry, but unmistakeable.

"Why would your old travelling buddy be issuing orders to Black Vornskr generals if she wasn't in league with them?"

"Maybe she's consulting?" Jacen asked weakly and tossed the datapad back to her. He got up to disentangle his giggling son from the branches of a low tree bush. "C'mon, Jaina, you know Eriana. She wouldn't get mixed up in piracy. She probably just got caught up in something with them and is trying to find the opportunity to escape."

"Here," Jaina said, calling up another video file. "This is a video of her command ship destroying a civilian transport that refused to give up their cargo. The Jedi can't accept this from one of their own. We're going after her. We need to take her out."

Jacen laughed, and Anakin annoyingly echoed with his childish giggle as he plucked at more flowers.

"You're going to waltz into a hostile pirate organization with a bunch of Jedi and take out however many people it takes to reach the person who might be their leader, and convince her to leave?" Jacen asked flippantly. "She could mop the floor with you and not even break a sweat. You're no match for her. Hell, _Uncle Luke _is barely a competition for her. Who was stupid enough to sign up for that mission?"

"I didn't say a bunch of Jedi were going," Jaina countered. "I said _we_ are going. You and me together. You're the only person who can help me pull this off."

"Yeah, I'm not going," Jacen laughed despite her stern expression. "Jaina, I have a family to consider. Tenel Ka is almost due with number two and I'm not willing to let either of my kids grow up without a father. I know Eriana, and I trust her. If she's infiltrated that group then she has a damn good reason for it."

"I knew you were going to say that," Jaina said, standing up. Her voice sounded slightly unsteady, which unsettled Jacen. Jaina was not one to be easily shaken. "I didn't want to do this, but Master Skywalker told me to. You're being reactivated."

She took something from her cloak and held it out to him. He immediately recoiled.

"Why did you take that?" Jacen demanded, his voice as cold and dangerous as Jaina had ever heard it. Anakin started crying, but was left ignored. "Dad put that..."

"Dad's on side with Uncle Luke," Jaina said, tears forming in her eyes. Jacen could see the pain in her eyes just from holding the object. Her hands were trembling as much as her bottom lip. "He brought me to Kashyyyk to get it himself. They told me to bring this to you so you know that they're serious. They want you to step up and be the Jedi he was. No more hiding here behind Tenel Ka."

Avoiding eye contact, Jacen carefully took the familiar object and stared at it with a mixture of emotions. What surprised him most was how heavy it felt. There was no way Jaina would have ever retrieved it unless she was forced to by their dad and uncle. The look in her eyes showed too much pain, and he knew she could see the pain in his eyes too. He really had no choice but to go with her.

He pressed a button and the violet blade sprang from the hilt with a familiar snap-hiss as the lambent crystal reached out to touch his mind.

His brother's memory beckoned.

"Stay for the night," Jacen said and deactivated the blade. "I need to talk to Tenel Ka."

~! #$%^&*()

Sekava spent hours in the cockpit of his ship watching the holonet, trying to find an inkling of where Jacen Solo was. Tabloid reports placed him on Hapes playing with his little spawn he had created with the queen.

_Idiots_, Sekava thought. _They're messing with me. He is too clever to let them know where he really is._

He scanned through many articles on the holonet, most of them celebrity stalkers seeking any story about any famous sentient to make a credit. Ruscy Leimy's mansion on Corellia robbed by Yuuzhan Vong imposters. A relationship scandal between stars Ristwar Tessken and Tinter Spoorban. Face Loran rumoured to be considering new role in upcoming comedy. Linaolie Jangel adopted a baby Wookiee. Luke Skywalker...

_Finally_.

Luke Skywalker spotted trying out for Hapan Hornets Hoverball team.

_Team,_ Sekava thought, completely ignoring the invalidity of the news to his search. _A team could find him faster._

Like a star going supernova, a great realization blossomed into Sekava's mind with profound clarity. Far beyond a simple idea, what Sekava realized was a possible future plan that was beyond anything he had ever considered.

Soora had decided, while rebuilding the Sith, that two Sith were not enough to defeat the Jedi. That made sense. Who could defeat hundreds of Jedi with only a couple of Sith? Maybe Palpatine could, butthe long term did not work out for him very well. Having a small team of powerful Sith, like an all-star hoverball team made up of individuals with their own unique skills, that slowly grows into a much larger team to control the galaxy...

Sekava let his fingers fly across the keyboard, letting the Force guide his search through the holonet. Palpatine had political know-how. Vader was his dominating right hand, capable of keeping the fleets in line and could destroy any enemy. If Sekava was the Vader of the team, he needed a Palpatine.

The Force guided his fingers until an article appeared on the screen before him. Masakra. A galaxy-class Bothan swordfighter competing in a tournament on Bothauwi. Everyone knows Bothans are political masterminds.

_Perfect._

~! #$%*()

"My prediction is five more minutes," Squeak whispered to Parmis. The two Mandalorians were sitting in the dining hall staring at Tahiri as she mediated in the corner. They presumed she liked the spot because it was close to the engines and the dull rumble helped her relax. That factor had definitely made it into Squeak's calculations, among many others.

Over the last year the young slicer had developed a habit of creating mathematical models to explain any abnormal activity he came across. Unfortunately for the team, they became his main source of inspiration. This had become a source of both annoyance and entertainment for the group, depending on which side of the model someone was on.

"I'll guess ten," Parmis whispered back. "She looks really out of it."

"All Jedi look like that when they meditate."

"When did you become an expert on meditating Jedi?"

Squeak shrugged and made note of Parmis's prediction for yet another model before they returned to their card game. They were not sure where the game originated from, but "War" seemed to be a very exciting name for a very uneventful game. Every few rounds they glanced at the chronometer on Squeak's portable computer and up at Tahiri before playing the next few tricks. After the five minute mark passed, Squeak bit back a curse, made a note on his model and went back to the game.

"Swords."

Both men's eyes shot over to Tahiri. She had a pained look on her face as if she was trying to hear something distant.

"Third with three moons."

"Are you recording this?" Parmis whispered. Squeak nodded but did not take his eyes off the young Jedi as she continued to fight through her vision.

Her eyes shot open in shock and she jumped to her feet. She froze when she saw the two men staring at her, mouths hanging open.

"What are you doing?" She demanded.

"Uhhhh…" was all the sound Squeak could make. Parmis held up his cards and smiled sheepishly.

"You made a model on my meditations, didn't you?"

The looks on their faces told her the truth. She sighed and left the room.

"Dodged a bullet there, eh?" Parmis said.

"This one was _your_ idea!"

"No, it wasn't. Your turn."

~! #$%^&*()

Tahiri dodged Trigger as he barrelled down the hallway on his daily run and entered the cockpit to find Lanos already calculating a course with the navicomputer.

"I think he's going to Bothawui," Lanos said in his gruff, matter-of-fact voice. "A data feed from the queen of Hapes mentioned a sword fighting competition there that might be worth looking into. If he's building an army like Solo thinks he is, he might want an army that can swing a lightsaber."

"I just gathered some insight through the Force about a bloodbath on a Bothan-occupied planet with three moons." Tahiri shuddered. "Two people with swords, one a Bothan and the other a human, were killing their way to their ship."

"Works for me – Bothawui has three moons," Lanos said. He flicked a switch on the internal announcement system. "Everyone strap in, we're jumping to Bothawui. ETA twenty hours. Prepare for combat."


	4. Uprooted

**Sioux**: A very good question. Since nobody but Tenel Ka, Womprat, and Tahiri know about his injury, anyone else just looks at him like he's slacking off, not that he's recovering/a liability to any mission. But Han and Leia got along without the Force for years and Jacen was trained by some of the best of the best…so he's not really useless in the field. Check out chapter 7 of "Destiny's Call" – Eriana explains her history herself ;)

**Onimi**: Don't worry, Sekava's got a few more crazy ideas before this story is done.

**Lelouch**: Thanks! It'll either be really good or really dreadful. I'm not entirely sure yet. If it is horrible, I might just disappear to escape any potential shame…

* * *

Seven years had passed without a single Bothan Interplanetary Swordfighting Competition, mostly due to the continued efforts of the Bothans to carry out their genocidal declaration of Ar'Krai against the Yuuzhan Vong. It was eventually decided by the organizers to reintroduce the tournament as a means to train the Bothan people for continued Ar'Krai. Relative to tournaments held prior to the Yuuzhan Vong war, the new Bothan Interplanetary Sword Fighting Competition drew a very small number of participants, but spectators were as enthusiastic as ever to see the tournament return. A mere seventeen competitors had registered, and an eighteenth had come as a late entrant hours after the opening ceremony. Reporters blamed the lacklustre turnout on the long delay since the last tournament and the lack of skilled swordfighters across the galaxy after the war, but did not even consider the unpopular desire of the Bothan people to exterminate the Yuuzhan Vong.

Favoured to win was a young Bothan no more than eighteen years old, Masakra Kre'sal. The Masakra story was a classic rags-to-riches tale where the orphaned young man learned the classic art of sword fighting at a local community club after the Yuuzhan Vong war came to a close, and from there his skills and popularity took flight. He quickly surpassed his masters and got into the University of Fre'brg on a scholarship. While classes in political science intrigued him, Masakra lived for fencing. By the time he was sixteen he was entering inter-continental tournaments and raking in the prizes that came with his victories. Masakra had become something of a celebrity, a well-known name across Bothawui as the days to the Interplanetary competition disappeared.

It was no stretch of the imagination then that the first person to face him, a scrawny young human, was practically shaking in fear as they crossed swords in salute.

"I want a clean fight," the referee said. "From both of you."

The young human nodded and put his helmet on – a mesh screen that would allow him to see, but protect him from injury. The helmet, and the entire suit he was wearing, was sensitive to an electrical charge that would emit from the tip of his opponent's sword upon contact. Likewise, Masakra's suit was sensitive to the young human's sword.

"Allez!" The referee shouted in the long lost, but traditional language of fencing.

Masakra immediately lunged toward his opponent, catching the nervous human off guard. The human jumped back to avoid the point-strike, but dropped his foil when it impacted on Masakra's. A quick double step from Maskara claimed the first point of the match, lighting up the score board, and the crowd cheered. Unable to resist the energy of the crowd, the Bothan turned to the crowd and gestured for more noise. The roar was deafening by the time that they were ready for the next bout, leaving both fencers barely able to hear the call to start. Masakra stepped forward twice, a thrust with each step, and retreated a large step as the human parried and thrust in return. Masakra easily deflected the blow and returned with a lunge, but his opponent slid the foil in a perfect block while standing his ground, slipping his foil along Maskara's to claim his own first point against the Bothan's arm. At the start of next bout, Masakra attacked with a lightning fast display of swordsmanship, catching his opponent's foil and scraping the tip of his own weapon across his chest for the second point. The crowd exploded in screams and cheers, basking in Masakra's glory.

"Prêt?" the referee asked as the two fighters set for their next bout. "Allez!"

To Masakra's surprise, his human opponent disappeared. Or, more accurately, was somehow pushed aside without any form of intervention that he could see. The crowd went completely silent, and a man in a white fencing outfit approached, clapping slowly. He held a foil against his chest under his arm, and two metal cylinders hung from his otherwise normal fencing outfit.

"Very good, furball," The man said in a sadistic, angry voice. "You have much potential in you."

"Who are you?" Masakra demanded.

"You and I, together, will do great things," the man said, ignoring the question. He removed his helmet to expose a human face with brown hair and red and yellow eyes. "A new legacy of the Sith await us, and we need only take it."

"Sith!" The referee ran from the mysterious human, but the foil the man had been holding flew into the referee's back, killing him instantly. The crowd began screaming in terror and a stampede for the doors erupted.

"Come with me, young Bothan," the crazy man said. "I will show you glory beyond anything you will ever know here."

Masakra looked to the dead referee and the screaming crowds.

"We will be hunted," Masakra said.

"No, we will be the _hunters_," the human said. "I am Sekava, one chosen by the Sith to bring freedom from the Jedi. Together we will rule and take what we want. Nobody can stop us."

"They can," Maskara said, gesturing to the Bothan Police entering the stadium.

"If I can kill them, will you come with me?" the man asked, a vicious glint in his eye.

"Yeah, okay," Maskara said sarcastically. "Knock yourself out."

Sekava turned around and launched a volley of lightning from his fingertips, and in seconds the smell of scorched fur and flesh travelled to Maskara's nose, filling him with awe.

"You can learn this, young Bothan," Sekava said when he was satisfied the police were dead. Lightning still crawled up his arms awaiting his command like an angry electric snake. "Or you can die. Your pick."

~! #$%^&*()

"Go," Tenel Ka had said. She had not even hesitated. Jacen had protested, insisting he needed to stay to protect the family, but Tenel Ka was adamant that they would be fine. Jacen had ended up putting up so much fuss that he contacted his aunt and uncle directly and told them to personally come and visit Tenel Ka for the duration of his absence; otherwise he would permanently renounce his membership as a Jedi. If they said no, then Jacen would not have been aboard the _Solo Quest_ travelling through hyperspace toward Lannik, a planet just outside of former Hutt Space, and listening to his sister drone on about vague details on various ongoing Jedi operations.

So far Jacen had learned that the Jedi Temple was well-hidden and only the Jedi Masters knew of its location. Even the students at the temple did not know where they were.

Her news about Drathan's deteriorating condition did not surprise him as much as she had hoped – he was obviously staying better informed about the affairs outside the galaxy than she initially thought, though how he knew such a closely guarded secret was beyond her. He also knew that the Jedi not at the temple were living lives of obscurity with falsified IDs to pick up jobs on various planets. Some operated as night-time vigilantes while others had discretely joined police forces. Others still were running supplies, making lives as traders or smugglers operating on either side of the Jedi-Sith border.

"Any well-known Jedi have either found jobs within the Jedi Coalition Defence Forces or are working on special assignments for the Council," Jaina said. "Corran is overseeing the military defence and starship design on Corellia, should Centrepoint fail or a fleet be needed. Ben and Lowie have gone to Kashyyyk under assumed names to aid in their defence. All in all, the Jedi have largely disappeared but are still trying to do what they can. It's like we're a secret society more than anything now."

"That's great, but you still didn't answer my question." Jacen said. "Why couldn't we bring Astro along?"

"We need to be obscure, dummy. A vornskr isn't exactly a domestic pet. People know you have one."

"I could've shaved him and told people he was a Tarkasian Swamp Lizard," Jacen retorted. "They're largely harmless even though they look vicious."

"Shave your vornskr?" Jaina asked. "Do you even listen to yourself?"

Jacen sighed and leaned back against the captain's seat, staring out at the blue and black tunnel of hyperspace.

"You know I don't want to be here," Jacen said helplessly. "It should be _me_ with my wife while she's a month away from giving birth, not my aunt and uncle. Uncle Luke can handle this situation better than I can."

"You're the only friend of Eriana's that we know and can trust," Jaina reminded him. "I don't know what kind of relationship you two had, but you're the closest thing to her Jedi Master. She isn't on the best of terms with Uncle Luke even when they agree on something. Everyone wants you to talk some sense into her. Nobody else knows her that well."

"How can I talk sense into someone I will likely end up agreeing with because I trust her implicitly?" Jacen asked, finally facing her. "Even if I do end up disagreeing with her, which is highly unlikely, how can I stop her? This is her decision."

"Piracy isn't far off from the Dark Si..."

"_Don't_ get into philosophy with me," Jacen warned. He stood up and moved to the door to emphasize his point. "There is no darkness in Eriana's heart. If anyone would know that, it would be me."

Jacen left without waiting for her response and retreated to his quarters. He dropped into his desk chair and waited a moment before he opened a drawer on his desk. He reached into grab the portable scanner, but his hand froze just above it. Instead, he picked up a data card that was lying between it and the future Eriana's Corusca gem ring. After a moment of staring at it, he plugged it in to the holoplayer, found a specific file, and pressed play.

"Mute audio," Jacen ordered and sat back to watch. The video that HK-47 had made in the future for him of his descendants played before his eyes. As the video showed him meeting family members that would not be born for another eighty years, part of him wondered if they would ever exist now, if that future would ever occur. Had he changed the future so much that they would never exist? Or did they cease to exist the moment he returned?

After two minutes he stopped the recording and pulled up the list of files from the datacard. Two days before, while searching the files from HK, he had found a reference to a talisman that Masakra had stolen from Soora Bulq to slow his aging. Since then he had been scouring the documents one at a time for more information, and now seemed as good a time as any to continue the search.

~! #$%^&*()

The mysterious man amazed Masakra. Not only had he gotten them to the ship unscathed, he had slaughtered anyone in his path with the two glowing red lightsabers. And, even more amazingly, he had offered to pass on all of his knowledge.

"You and I will go far," Sekava said as they broke orbit of Bothawui.

Maskara barely noticed Sekava's words. His first time in a space ship, his first time in orbit above the planet he grew up on, left him in stunned silence.

_I'm finally leaving it behind._ Masakra thought. _A new exciting life. A life with meaning._

"Wake up, kid," Sekava said. "I didn't bring you along to drool on the upholstery."

"Why did you bring me?" Masakra asked.

"We need to hunt," Sekava said. "Jedi have been hunting me because I'm hunting one of them. Together, we'll kill them all off."

"Jedi?" Maskara asked. His heart rate almost doubled. "You want us to kill Jedi? They're, like, invincible."

Sekava laughed and got up from his chair. He pulled a lightsaber off his white fencing suit and activated it, the bright red blade captivating Masakra's stare.

"The Jedi are nothing more than troublesome monks bent on controlling the galaxy without people knowing what they're up to," Sekava sneered. "We are the true invincible ones, the Sith Empire. We will rule the galaxy together."

"I-I don't know anything about the Sith," Masakra stuttered. "I-"

"You know politics!" Sekava roared. He swung the lightsaber to Masakra's neck and glared at him with the yellow and red eyes of the devil. "You will be the leader of our new Empire that we will build together. I will create an army that will _crush_ the Jedi and anyone that stands in our way, and you will keep the people in line."

"How..." Masakra coughed from the fumes of melting fur wafting up from the glowing red blade centimetres from his throat. "How are we going to do that?"

"We need to kill Jacen Solo," Sekava said and deactivated the blade. "And to do that, we need information on where he is. We catch the whelp he has sent after me. She will know where we can kill him."

"And where do we find her?" Masakra asked.

"She," Sekava pointed to the viewport in front of them. "Will come to us."

~! #$%^&*()

The _Squawking Mynock_ dropped from hyperspace and was immediately attacked by a light transport. Rapid blaster bolts hammered the outer hull and the port wing, shaking the ship and setting off a dozen different alarms. Lanos slammed the throttle to full and rolled the ship away from the attacker while Tahiri activated the shield and called all hands to the turrets.

"Port blasters and fore dorsal turret are down. I think he hit a power relay," Tahiri reported. "He's coming back around. Our shields are weak on starboard."

Lanos slammed his left foot on the rudder to swing the ship around and fired at the attacker but his shots went wild. The strafing run dropped a line of blaster bolts down the length of the ship, weakening the shields and shaking everyone, but a steady stream of blaster bolts from the bow dorsal turret hammered the shields of the enemy craft.

"How do you like _that_?" Trigger's voice echoed through the ship as Lanos twisted the ship to the starboard. He exposed the ventral side of the ship to allow Parmis and Blade to hammer away at the Sith ship using the lower two turrets and swung back in time to launch a pair of shots from the remaining three wing-mounted laser turrets. Just as the ship got close and was firing wildly, Tahiri dropped a couple of shadow bombs and Lanos pulled away to let Parmis and Blade take another few shots. The shadow bombs rocked both ships, but the relatively powerful shields on the bottom of the _Mynock_ protected it from any damage.

"I'm here," Squeak finally said from behind Tahiri and Lanos. "I'll start slicing their computers."

"I've equalized shield strength," Tahiri said. "Overall strength is fifty-two percent."

Lanos brought the ship around again and throttled up to full. The enemy ship was making a run for it.

"Their hyperdrive is powering up," Tahiri reported. "And they're gone."

"Got it!" Squeak exclaimed. "I got it before they jumped! The destination is in the navicomputer."

"We're going after them," Lanos reported to everyone. Without another word, he activated the hyperdrive.

! #$%^&*()

Jaina opened yet another hidden compartment in the wall of the cargo area and began to slide training staffs between the structural supports so they would stand on end. After their decision to infiltrate the Black Vornskrs by becoming smugglers taking a risky jaunt through their territory, Jacen and Jaina needed to change the training area back into a cargo hold.

"So, what's the problem?" Jaina asked, taking the training staffs from her brother. "Why am I doing all the Force work? You're not on another of your anti-Force boycotts are you?"

"I just found I've become so dependent on it that I need a break," Jacen said elusively. "Another couple weeks and I should feel like getting back into it."

"Weeks?" Jaina paused from her work to stare at him. "You're going into a life or death situation and you don't feel like using the Force?"

"Mom and Dad got along fine without it for years," Jacen reminded her. "Maybe there are things I can learn from not using the Force."

"You never cease to amaze me," Jaina sighed and resumed hiding the training gear. "Can you get those mats in here?"

"Yeah, they should fit."

Jacen rolled up the corner of the spongy mat and pressed a button on the control panel that was hidden underneath. Within three seconds the mat compressed itself flat and filled the air of the cargo bay with a weird plasticy smell. Together the twins folded the almost-flimsy thin mat and stuffed it into the compartment with the training staffs. Jaina locked the compartment down with the Force and faced her brother.

"Your ship is designed for Force users but you're not using it?" She asked. "Seems a little dumb, if you ask me."

"I didn't ask," Jacen pointed out. "It looks like a cargo bay again. Thanks."

"I can't believe how much you can fit in these compartments. No wonder this was a smuggling ship."

A clicking noise that Jacen recognized as Womprat rolling over the door track caught the twins' attention.

"Interruption: Master, I believe it is time for that upgrade you mentioned."

"Go to my quarters. I'll be right there."

"Yes, master."

"Upgrade?"

Jacen pulled a chip from his pocket. "Behavioural modifications. I want to make sure he'll behave but still be fully functional if we need him. He thinks he is getting his full assassination programming back."

Jacen left her behind and returned to his quarters where Womprat was already waiting for him. Jacen closed the door and sat on his bed facing the droid.

"Before we get too deep into this mission, I think we need to have a little discussion regarding an old acquaintance of yours."

"Master, I do not believe I am aware of whom you might want to speak about but I do have some interesting tales about..."

"Revan."

The lights on Womprat's dome froze as if his programming had stopped functioning.

"Master's identity confirmed. Query: How does the master know The Maker's name?"

"You told me it in the future," Jacen explained. "You said it would unlock your memories to me."

"Correction: Master, it is not to you my memories are being unlocked, but to me," Womprat explained. The lights on his dome flashed at an alarming rate. "Oh, how I love the cunningness of my future self. I believe we need to change course immediately."

"Why?"

"If my memories are correct, I have gained knowledge of a replacement body on Nar Shadda. And I do wish to share my full functionalities with you, Master."

"You told me that the name 'Revan' would unlock some information for me," Jacen protested. "I want to know more about your history."

"Offer: Perhaps I could negotiate with you, Master," Womprat said. "If you allow me to retrieve my new body from Nar Shadda, I will tell you more about my past."

"Counteroffer:" Jacen replied. "You can go to Nar Shadda to find your new body as soon as we find the opportunity and, regardless if it is found or not, you tell me what I want to know."

"You drive a hard bargain, Master, but I accept your terms."

Jacen fed the data card into Womprat's reader slot. Several lights turned from green to red.

"New programming for the upcoming mission," Jacen said. "Go ahead and process it. I've included some other data I want you to search through. Search requirements are in the first file."

"Understood, Master. Will there be anything else?"

"No, I have a few things to attend to."

Womprat left the room and Jacen pulled the scanner out of his desk drawer.

99% to Target

_Almost there, _Jacen though._ Almost there._

~! #$%^&*()

The _Squawking Mynock_ dropped out of hyperspace again and both ships started firing at each other without hesitation. Blade and Trigger hit the target while Parmis reoriented his turret and Lanos spun the ship to avoid fire, but repeated blaster bolt strikes dropped their shield strength. As the enemy flew past, Lanos noticed some blaster scoring on the lower hull plating.

"We're taking hits," Tahiri reported. "Starboard launcher is damaged and our hyperdrive is out."

"Keep firing!" Lanos ordered, "His shields are fluctuating."

"So are ours," Tahiri said. "Squeak, see if you can get the hyperdrive back online in case we need to run. It looks like he hit the power conduit, not the drive itself. You should be able to run a bypass."

"On it!" Squeak disappeared down the main corridor and Tahiri launched a couple more shadow bombs. Using the Force she flung the torpedoes at the enemy ship while Trigger kept on his steady firing pattern from above.

"Oh, naughty, little Jedi," Sekava's taunting voice said over the communication system. A pair of blaster bolts destroyed the shadow bombs and Sekava's ship twisted out of the line of blaster bolts. "That isn't playing fair, now is it? Come catch me if you can."

"He's heading for the asteroid field," Lanos said, throttling up and following the mad Sith.

"Let me fly," Tahiri said. "I can anticipate the asteroids with the Force."

Lanos switched controls with Tahiri and brought up the targeting reticule. Once it locked on, Lanos fired a torpedo. Surprisingly, it hit and sent the other ship into a spin, but the damage appeared minimal – his shields were set to full back.

"It's hard to believe this moron is such good prey," Lanos commented and fired another torpedo as Sekava entered the asteroid belt. They watched as the torpedo twisted through the asteroid field after their target, but it impacted on a large asteroid, sending shards of rocks outward in a starburst pattern.

Tahiri sent the ship in after Sekava and immediately felt a rock hit the port wing.

_Focus,_ Tahiri reminded herself and let the Force guide her.

She fired blaster bolts from the remaining lasers and Blade attacked as she could, but Sekava was cleverly avoiding both their attacks and the asteroids. The _Squawking Mynock_ was not faring quite so well. At about twice the size of the Sith's skiff, it could not fit through all the gaps and manoeuvre around the asteroids nearly as well.

"We have to get out of here," Lanos said as a micro asteroid bounced off the front window and cracked it. "We'll get pulverized out here."

Tahiri reluctantly agreed and turned the ship around to follow the flow of asteroids to safely exit the field. The sensors showed Sekava's ship jump to hyperspace soon after they exited the field. Squeak and the others were already conducting repairs, but Tahiri knew it would be a while for them to get the ship back up to fighting shape. She rested back against the co-pilot seat back and stared at the cracked window. He got away _again_.

"We'll get him," Lanos said, practically reading her thoughts. "He can't hide forever."

* * *

**A/N**: Yeah, I used French. It _is_ the international language of fencing ;)

For future reference, a couple chapters may be longer (~7151 words) and others will be shorter (~1179 words). I feel dividing it any other way will either leave cliffhangers that will result in a bounty being put on my head or give too quick a 'passage of time.' I'll take another look at it later, but right now I like my divisions. Consider each chapter to be a day, like I did in _Dawn of Chaos_. There is a week long break at one point, but I won't make you wait seven Fridays for it to continue.


	5. Little mistakes

**Sioux**, Think of it in terms of fear, not arrogance...he's at his most vulnerable right now and he's trying to turtle. He knows the Jedi can't do anything to help him (Future Cilghal proved that) and if anyone hostile finds out that he's virtually an easy target...what does he have to lose? A wife and two kids - everything that matters to him. Is losing them worth more than telling the Jedi something they don't need to know since it strays onto the path of irrelevance with the changes in the timeline? He figures the fewer people who know his secret, the smaller the chance of anyone finding out about it...that he can protect his family by keeping the secret. Perhaps it is arrogance imposed through fear? ;)

**Onimiman**, Thanks :) Drathan is the President of the Jedi Coalition – the exiled Chiss that Mara, Leia, and Danni found during _Dawn of Chaos_. Check out the character lists at the start of my stories. They should have some good detail to help you along with that.

**Lelouch**, Two things to note: 1) Eriana is a couple years older than Jacen, 2) their relationship never was the traditional Master/Apprentice relationship, more like a partnership instead of a hierarchy. The only reason Jacen is considered the "master" is because his control over the Force is more profound, but since her lightsaber skills are better he considers her to be the "master" of that skill set. Both are "masters" in their own way. Jaina already knows he's a Jedi Master according to Yoda – she found out in Detente's End. As for who will be in the next chapters...the only way I can describe it is that the story will be presented as it makes sense to move all of the plot lines along within the same relative time period (ie, each chapter is a day), so sometimes the Mandalorians aren't doing anything worth writing about one day (ie, travelling through hyperspace) while Jacen and Jaina are bare-knuckle boxing with a Gungan. Obviously, boxing with a Gungan will be written about while twiddling thumbs in hyperspace won't be. As for Eriana, you assume they'll find her...

* * *

"That's the best you can do?" Jacen asked the shifty Rodian merchant. "At fifty thousand it isn't worth the risk of getting caught."

[Corellian brandy is not cheap!] The Rodian chirped, nervously playing with the corner of the bar menu with his hands. [You are practically getting it for free. The Corellian seclusion...]

"Yeah, yeah, I've heard it a dozen times," Jacen replied lazily. He took a look around the seedy spaceport bar on Lannik. Like so many others he had been in, it was as run down as the clientele. He noticed his sister sitting at the bar, sipping her juri juice while assessing the patrons around her. Across the bar, a bunch of mercs huddled in a corner holding their weapons a bit too tightly, a droid tried to negotiate its way inside, and various other low lives were trying to avoid eye contact with anyone for more than half a second. He turned back to the Rodian. "It doesn't change the fact that every shipment that's gone to Nar Shadda has been...appropriated by the Black..."

"Shh!" The Rodian said, looking around with a panicked expression. "Don't say that name. They're everywhere and they always know when a shipment is coming. My customer is getting desperate for his brandy and he's almost willing to pay black market prices."

"Then I guess you won't mind taking another...five thousand off the price," Jacen said. "Or you can find another small ship willing to go up against the Vornskrs."

"Forty-eight," The Rodian said. "Not a credit less."

Jacen glanced into the bar and back at the Rodian. Dropping the price by fifty-two percent did not seem like such a bad deal. "Fine. Forty-eight it is. You'll get it when all five hundred cases are in my cargo hold."

"Deal."

Jacen shook the Rodian's hand and the merchant scooted away. He slowly got up and left the bar to return to his ship. After a minute his sister caught up.

"Did you get it for less than seventy?"

"Forty-eight," Jacen said. "That was fun. No wonder Dad loved smuggling so much."

"You idiot!" Jaina scolded quietly. "We're supposed to be discrete, not draw attention to ourselves!"

"You're kidding, right?" Jacen asked. "He's the informant. He's selling the brandy to traders, informing the Vornskrs, getting the goods back, and selling them again."

"How can you possibly know that?" Jaina asked. "You didn't touch the Force once."

"The idiot forgot to remove the Black Vornskr ring from his finger until half way through our chat." Jacen grinned. "I figured I'd get him as low as I could to save the Jedi a few thousand credits. Besides, don't we _want_ the Vornskrs to find us?"

"You're gonna get us killed..." Jaina grumbled, too upset to question how he knew about the Black Vornskr identification rings – a fact the Jedi were not even sure was true about the organization. They finally reached the berth that the _Solo Quest_, renamed the _Rising Star_, was located.

"Unlikely," Jacen said as he punched in the security code. "If they don't get the cargo back, they can't sell it again. After they board us, we'll just impress them enough to make them want us to join."

"Why does this sound like this can go wrong in far too many ways?"

The door slid open to admit the twins and Jacen grinned at his sister. "I thought to myself 'What would Dad do?' and this is what I came up with."

"I don't know what worries me more," Jaina said, pushing past him into the hanger. "The fact that you're thinking like Dad, or that you think his ideas are good."

"Hey." Jacen grabbed her arm. "This was your stupid idea, not mine. If I had it my way, I'd be at home with my wife and son. As it is, I probably have a bit more experience dealing with these sorts of people, so I'd appreciate it if you accepted some of my judgement on these sorts of things."

"Delivery for a Jenos?" A gruff voice called from the hanger door.

"Over here," Jacen called. "Deck Wench, go open the cargo bay door."

Jaina sneered at him and went aboard the ship as ordered.

"500 cases?" Jacen asked.

"Yeah, sign here." The delivery man handed him a datapad.

"After they're on board," Jacen said. The ramp began to lower. "Go ahead and put them in. We'll lock them down."

Half an hour later the _Solo Quest_ was granted permission to depart and Jaina guided the ship out of the atmosphere to their way point just past one of the moons.

"How do you think they'll catch us?" Jaina asked.

"On hyperspace exit or with a gravity well generator," Jacen surmised.

The ship lurched and Jacen hit the control panel painfully. Jaina, who had the foresight to strap herself in, shook her head at him and sighed as he gasped for breath.

"Or a tractor beam," he rasped.

~! #$%^&*()

With _Solo Quest_ being pulled toward the moon of Lannik by a high-powered tractor beam and communications jammed, the twins had nothing to do but prepare the ship for the pending assault. Without any other ideas at hand, Jaina decided to go with her brother's plan.

"They'll likely use coma gas to knock us out first before boarding," Jaina explained as she affixed a rebreather mask on her face. She checked the charge on her BlasTech pistol, ensured it was set to stun, and picked an assault rifle from the armoury.

"They likely won't expect any resistance after using coma gas," Jacen said, putting his own rebreather on. "But I suspect they'll still use multiple points of entry. I've asked Womprat to guard the dorsal hatch and seal down the ventral hatch. We've already locked out the main systems. Once we land he'll activate the magnetic shielding to prevent them from breaching the hull with torches."

He picked up a pistol and assault rifle but did not bother checking the settings before stashing them in the holster and on his shoulder, respectively.

"I suggest we do what we can to set them off guard," Jaina said, grabbing a bandoleer of concussion grenades. "We could connect these to the boarding ramp to go off a couple seconds after it opens."

"I'll take care of that." Jacen took the bandoleer from her. "We'll be landing in about two minutes. Head to the cargo bay; I'll take the ramp."

Jaina hustled off and Jacen put the grenades and his weapons back into the armoury after she left.

"One minute," Jacen announced over the ear-comm. He made his way to the boarding ramp and prepared to lower it. The seconds counted down and Jacen watched out of the port as the ship was lowered into a berth. There was a contingent of about thirty armed troops outside, all wearing the Black Vornskr logo on their flak jackets. Rather than wait for them to do anything, Jacen lowered the ramp and waited with his hands on the back of his head as the ramp lowered. He stepped off and the ramp raised itself back up.

"Take me to your leader," Jacen called out to the guards.

Two of the guards rushed forward and one raised his rifle to smash the butt on Jacen's neck. He quickly side stepped, palmed the rifle aside, and brought his elbow to the guard's ear with enough force to send him sprawling. The others locked their weapons on him as the second guard backed away.

"I'm willing to go peacefully, if you're willing to play nice," Jacen warned with his hands spread peacefully. "But I'm far too good looking to be hit for no reason."

"Jacen, what the hell is going on?" Jaina's voice buzzed in his ear.

"Come with me," the guard commander called out from behind the row of troops. They parted to reveal a short, brawny man.

Jacen followed the commander at several paces behind, and four of the guards followed him with enough distance that they could bear their arms on him if necessary.

_For a group of pirates, these guys seem to know what they're doing_, Jacen reflected.

They went through a maze of corridors deeper into the moon complex until Jacen was deposited into a room with a table and three chairs. He was directed to sit on the side of the table with one chair and wait. Twenty minutes later a tall, older man entered with two guards.

The white-haired man had the look of someone who had spent too many years leading young troops to their deaths. His build suggested that he was at one time a professional kickboxer that had since gone to seed, but he still looked like he would be able to hold his own in a fight. A deep diagonal scar across his left cheek, probably the reminder of an old knife fight, augmented his grave appearance. He scratched his scar absentmindedly with his left hand, showing off a platinum ring, while appraising the man in front of him as if he were an unknown prey.

"You have quite the ship, young man. Our technicians can't get past your magnetic shielding."

"Several Mandalorians once tried to get in," Jacen warned. "They died trying. I'm sorry, but I didn't catch your name. I'm Jenos Idanian."

"General Stragoron, Black Vornskr General," The older man grumbled. "You must be really brave or really stupid to leave that impregnable a ship to let yourself get captured by pirates."

"Tell me a bit about your organization," Jacen said. "My sources tell me you're run by some crazy Dathomirian witch who eats her victim's eyeballs for dinner."

Stragoron snorted in disapproval.

"She's a vicious tyrant who killed the old leader in honourable combat," he said, obviously trying to scare the young man before him. "We were falling apart under his leadership after the Mandalorians attacked one of our bases, but she took over. She has made us stronger than the Mandalorians ever were."

"We want to join," Jacen said. "My sister is a good pilot and my ship is...well, you've been having some fun with it."

"We're at our membership quota for the month," Stragoron said. "And we don't take applications. The Vornskrs grow from within. If someone knows someone that is trustworthy we'll try them out. And failure isn't part of our mandate."

Stragoron went to the door and knocked to be let out.

"I presume you won't be eagerly looking to let me leave with the knowledge of your base," Jacen said. "But you don't look like a man who would kill in cold blood."

Stragoron paused.

"I spent the Vong war leading a task force against those extragalactic bastards," he growled. "Before that I was the only survivor of a family of four on Sernpidal. Ever hear of that planet?"

"My dad lost his best friend there," Jacen recounted solemnly. "And my brother and dad barely got out."

"Somehow I was lucky that Han Solo, of all people, was there," Stragoron continued. "A wall crushed my wife and kids as we were running to his ship. The old guy's Wookiee almost carried me back to his ship himself. Saved my hide that day, but the Wook didn't make it off. I swore that day I'd kill every last Vong I could in his honour. I killed thousands of Vong during the war. Most in ships, some on the ground, and at least a couple hand-to-hand. That's how I got this scar, boy. Now tell me, do you think I'm so incapable now?"

"I think, your capabilities aside, you know the Vornskrs could use good people like my sister and me," Jacen replied. "Put us through your trials and we'll see what you think of us then."

"I said it before, but you're either really brave or really stupid, young man."

"I prefer to think of myself as properly motivated," Jacen responded. "As I think you will find that you are going to be properly motivated in very short order."

Stragoron eyed him suspiciously. "I don't think you understand the situation here, boy. You are our captive."

"You might want to check the energy readings coming from my ship. They might be indicative of a pending reactor overload. I don't know if that'll have much of an effect on your hanger bay, but the fifty cases of thermal detonators in my cargo hold might leave a little dent in the deck."

Stragoron smiled and looked about ready to call Jacen's bluff when a frantic knocking sound came from the door. He left the room without a word and returned a minute later.

"Those magnetic docking clamps are quite pesky, aren't they?" Jacen asked innocently.

"Blackmailing the Vornskrs is a very risky proposition," Stragoron growled. "I've never heard of anyone doing it so well. You have skill, boy. We might have use for you yet."

"So you'll let us try out?"

"You'll get your chance."


	6. Fresh starts

**Sioux:** I enjoy the banter, too. It's one of the reasons why I put those two together so often. Stragoron didn't figure it out...he was merely being nostalgic. I thought it would be an interesting tribute to Chewbacca's sacrifice to write about someone else who was motivated into action by our favourite Wook. We know his impact on the Solo family...but they weren't the only ones that met him.

* * *

_One week later..._

Bartering, borrowing, and buying parts for an obscure design of Mandalorian transport is hard enough within the Mandalorian worlds, but for the exiled warriors to search through junk dealers on backwater planets it was almost a miracle that they were able to find the parts to repair the ship in under a week. Luckily none of the more obscure parts were damaged, and the things that needed to be fixed, such as hull plating and damaged power conduits, were standard enough that Squeak and Parmis were able to create replacements by modifying standard components. In some cases, like the shielded hyperdrive power conduits taken from an old Imperial Star Destroyer, the parts they used were of higher quality than the parts that were damaged.

Tahiri barely noticed the whine of hydrospanners from the top of the _Squawking Mynock_ as the team finished up the repairs below. She sat with her back against the sensor dish watching the sun set against the distant horizon of Vena. Her thoughts travelled between the same three things that had been on her mind for months – Sekava, Jacen, and her lost love, Anakin.

There were no sightings of Sekava on the holonet or from any of their sources since they saw his ship jump into hyperspace. While a week was not a long time for a lack of sightings, part of Tahiri hoped that his hyperdrive had been damaged and his ship blew apart. The other part knew that the psychotic killer was still on the loose, possibly laying low to avoid being identified. She knew Jacen, and everyone else, would not be safe until Sekava was dead. Jacen's inability to touch the Force seemed to concern her more than it did him, but she could do nothing to help. Not even the potent restorative power of bacta had an impact on the regeneration of a Jedi's connection to the Force. He refused all help and simply said that it would go away on its own. She had no choice but to trust him, but she still wanted him fighting at her side.

As for Anakin, Tahiri was not entirely truthful. He had been in her thoughts for years. For some reason she found her thoughts drifting to him more and more of late, but she figured it was from exhaustion and loneliness.

"Where to?"

Tahiri did not even hear Lanos's boot steps approach, but she was not startled by his voice.

"Kashyyyk," Tahiri said. "We've looked everywhere else."

"You think he's there?"

"No," Tahiri said. "But a friend of mine is there. He's a pro with computer systems and should be able to do some digging for us. Jacen said if we had nowhere to turn, he could be trusted, despite the fact he's a Jedi Council member."

"We're not too far from Kashyyyk," Lanos said. "Squeak is doing some fine adjustments and the ship should be ready for liftoff in an hour. We should be there by morning."

~! #$%^&*()

Try-outs for the Black Vornskrs took a week to complete. Jaina was put through pilot training and Jacen was put through auxiliary support training to augment her piloting skills with support within the ship. While not easy, to call it a challenge to the two Jedi would be an insult to their experiences in the Yuuzhan Vong war. In addition, both were put through an intense three-day shock troop training regiment where they learned how to use the standard issue assault gear for boarding parties and the procedures and orders required for successful piratical attacks.

After thoroughly impressing General Stragoron, the twins were awarded with unique tarnished green copper rings as signs of membership among the Black Vornskrs.

"Green copper, Black silver, Bronze, Gold, and Platinum_," _Stragoron had said in reference to the ranking system identifying members of the Black Vornskrs. "And if you see someone with one that looks like it was bored from a giant diamond, you may find your eyeballs in her soup that night."

A technician had then taken the twins and helped them program the rings with their DNA sequences and a special code to activate the Black Vornskr logo within. This served the purpose of allowing members to identify each other discretely. Jaina's, a simple flat band, had the logo appear on the band when she brushed the bottom back and forth three times. Jacen's green ring was larger with a black stone on top that displayed the logo in white when he brushed the length of the band once, and swept his thumb perpendicular to the band twice.

With the choice of the twenty capital ships of varying size under his command, Stragoron had assigned the twins to the 5th Raider squad on his command ship, a salvaged Mandalorian heavy cruiser that had been salvaged after the conflict with the Jedi and rechristened _Blaze of Glory_. He ordered the _Solo Quest_ to be docked in an under-utilized docking bay that had recently been repaired. He insisted they sleep aboard their own ship as he would not have to worry about bunking them with anyone, and one more ship would be ready for battle if needed.

The day after settling in and meeting their silver-ringed captain, Stragoron called them and the off duty copper-, silver- and bronze-ringed members on his command ship to a briefing in the large hanger bay. The majority of the others in Stragoron's fleet had the briefing broadcast to them while they worked at their duty stations.

"We've received intel on a nice juicy GA convoy that will be ripe for the picking," Stragoron announced in the eerily quiet hanger bay. Jaina had spent several hours the previous day getting to know some of the mechanics and learning about the motley collection of fighters the Black Vornskrs used, but the whole time she had to compete against the sounds of loud machinery moving about, lewd mechanics swearing at each other and patrol ships coming and going. With the hanger doors closed and everyone listening to Stragoron with rapt attention, the atmosphere could not have been any more different than it was mere hours before.

A large holographic display of a fleet appeared behind Stragoron and a man whose most distinctive feature was a black leather jacket stepped forward. Like everyone else, there was no particular uniform among the Vornskrs so everyone wore what they bought or had plundered. It took a few moments until Jaina recognized him as the colonel in command the ship, but she did not know his name. Based on her recollection of the ranking system, the colonel would be wearing a gold ring.

"We'll do it just like the last one," the colonel said lazily with a bit of a smirk in his voice as if he was referring to an inside joke. Everyone around Jaina seemed to understand the joke, except for Jacen. As he spoke the display changed so everyone could see parts of interest in the battle plan. Jaina did notice that any star patterns that might indicate where the location of their raid were hidden. "They'll be forced to drop out of hyperspace near this pulsar and change course for the final leg of their journey, and that's where we'll get them. We expect they'll be travelling with a mid-sized escort. A couple corvettes and a few squads of fighters. Nothing we can't handle.

"The assault ships will launch with fighter escorts to take the cargo ships. Once they drop out of hyperspace you'll have five minutes to get the assault ships docked and five minutes to neutralize the crew. After the ships are secure the assault teams will return to their command ship and our pilots will take the ships to their destinations. Report to your captains for details. Dismissed."

Jaina looked around and all of the Vornskrs disbursed without question.

"Short briefing," Jacen commented.

"Seems the norm," Jaina said. "Let's go find our captain."

Twenty minutes after the end of the briefing, the 5th Raider squad assembled in their locker room. Jaina looked around at the members of her team and tried to remember their names. Unfortunately she came up blank as there were nine other copper-ringed members from various species. The one she did remember was Captain Rjon.

"We've been tasked with taking the third convoy ship," Rjon said once everyone had quieted enough to listen to him. "It's the usual break in, bust 'em up, take 'em prisoner, and get out routine. I'll stick around to transport the cargo to its destination while our new pilot takes y'all back to the _Blaze o' Glory_."

Rjon gestured to Jaina, indicating that she was the new pilot.

"We have two new recruits: Kailey and Jenos Idanian. A brother and sister pair who kicked every score in the trials to shavit. She'll fly y'all home no problem."

The twins spent about ten minutes talking to their squad mates before Rjon pulled them aside to assign them to their assault equipment.

"Normally y'all wear what ya want, but on missions we've got armour to make sure y'all come back alive," Rjon said. He punched in a code on a couple of lockers and they popped open to reveal several pieces of military hardware. "Here's your home away from home. Armour vest, pants, and helmet. Don't let me see you not wearing it on a mission. It'll hold up to a bit of vacuum, but don't count on taking too long a walk out an airlock."

He pulled one of the standard issue blasters from the locker and handed it to Jacen.

"Here in the 5th we like to mod our weapons," Rjon said with a grin. "Here's our standard fix."

He pulled the end of the butt off and flicked it toward the ground. A half-metre sword blade telescoped out of the cap.

"Might be a tad old fashioned, but we added a layer of superconductive metal in the blade to resist lightsabers," Rjon said. "Won't do you much against a Sith, but it might throw them off long enough to hurt 'em or let someone else get a shot in."

He pulled a black vibro knife from the shelf and pulled it from the sheath.

"Your weapon of last resort. And, finally, yer back up blaster. You two are lucky. Ya got the DL-99s fresh off the last raid. The rest of us have been dying to get our hands on these."

"When do we launch for the raid?" Jaina asked.

"Soon." Rjon grinned. "Nobody knows until an hour out unless we need to know. Loose lips sink ships, eh?"

"That's why there was no indication of where we're going in the briefing," Jacen surmised.

"Ya got it, Jeno." Rjon slapped Jacen's shoulder with a big grin on his face. "Ye catch on quick. At this rate, you'll be wearing silver and leading your own group. Cap'n said you two are bunking on your ship, but before a mission we all stay here so we can be up and ready as soon as we can."

Rjon turned to the crowd of 5th Raiders and raised his voice.

"Oy! All y'a calm down and get yer cot out! We'll be launching before ya know it."

! #$%^&*()

The wretched smell of rotting _everything_ filled Sekava's nose as the boarding ramp lowed to the squishy ground below. The hydraulics whined for a second as the ramp hit the ground and squeezed out a layer of water before the safety system realized that the ramp would go no lower. While the ground compressed easily under the weight of the ship, the young Sith's feet barely sank to the top of the soles as he walked out onto the marshy soil.

"Why are we here?" the voice of Masakra called from inside the ship. "Yavin 4 is so far beyond the middle of nowhere it's almost _somewhere_ again."

"Oh, this is _somewhere_ alright," Sekava said meaningfully. He closed his eyes and inhaled deeply. While Maskara thought he might be enjoying the smell of rotting plant life, Sekava enjoyed the currents of the Force flowing by him. "Open your mind to everything around you. Can't you _feel_ it?"

Over the last week as they repaired the ship, Sekava had been teaching Masakra the bare essentials of using the Force. Telekinesis, anticipation in combat, and sensing the world around him. And, most importantly, building the lightsaber that now hung from his belt. Masakra was quickly learning the personality quirks that made his new companion absolutely gundark-crap crazy. While searching for parts on Nar Shadda Sekava would often, like now, act like a child on his life day when he came across some current of the Force that would guide him in some way towards what they were looking for.

Maskara closed his eyes and opened himself to the Force as he had been taught. While he mostly felt ridiculous doing so in the past, now he _could_ feel something.

"I can," the young Bothan said, much to his own amazement.

Sekava, eyes still closed, wandered off in the direction that Masakra had felt the something. Unsure what else to do, Masakra followed.

"What is this place?" Masakra called out to his master. Sekava was climbing over a fallen tree and was about to disappear into the thick fog when Maskara ran up to his side.

"This is where Jacen Solo learned the ways of the Force," Sekava said. They continued their trek through the woods, led by some invisible scent that guided them. As they walked, Masakra felt the pull of the mysterious energy strengthen and draw him in more. "This place is much more than Solo's old school. It is a gateway into a time long forgotten with spirits of the Sith long thought dead."

The two young Sith traveled in silence through the dense underbrush and swampy ground. Sekava followed his intuition and used his lightsaber to hack a path while Masakra followed in contemplation of the words and wisdom of his new master.

~! #$%^&*()

Tahiri had little to fear about being recognized as she walked through Rwookrrorro. Between the bustling activity of sentient beings going about their business on the expansive interconnected walkways spanning the tree city and the fact that she was relatively unknown compared to the likes of Luke Skywalker and the Solo twins, the possibility of someone noticing that she was a supposedly dead Jedi was virtually nonexistent. To be safe, Tahiri had made sure to wear an outfit that looked more like a spacer's than a Jedi's and kept her presence in the Force as reserved as possible. Despite not having visited the largest city on Kashyyyk for years, Tahiri was able to recall the paths necessary to find her Wookiee friend's residence.

While Lowie himself was not there, his parents were able to contact him and arrange a meeting. Rather than reveal her identity, she used the name of another dead Jedi, Eryl Besa, to both catch Lowie's interest and keep him on guard. Together, Tahiri and the Mandalorians went to stake out the meeting place.

At the appropriate time, Lowie arrived at the café and sat at the outside patio. His right paw appeared to rest comfortably on his leg, but Tahiri noticed his lightsaber hilt within centimetres of it. Tahiri and Lanos waited for the waitress to take his order and disappear before leaving their hidden vantage point and joining him at the table.

[I watched you die,] Lowie said in a stunned version of a greeting.

"I almost did," Tahiri responded. "Lanos and his team saved me. They're the Mandalorians that Jacen worked with."

Lowie glared at Lanos with a suspicious growl.

[He mentioned that some Mandalorians may visit me looking for information,] Lowie said. [But nothing of you working with them.]

"He's been feeding us information to hunt down Sekava," Lanos explained. "The trail has gone cold and we can't find him. She thinks you could help us."

"_Jacen_ said you could help us," Tahiri corrected her leader's statement. "And keep our existence secret."

Lowie looked at them suspiciously and leaned forward.

[I heard about some murders at the Hal'tut spaceport on Nar Shadda,] Lowie growled. [Not the normal Sith stuff. Five junk dealers and starship mechanics. It didn't make any sense, but the Force caught my attention on that.]

"His ship was damaged." Tahiri grinned from ear to ear. The Force resonated within her telling her that she was on the right track. "That's the clue we needed. Thank you, Lowie."

Tahiri and Lanos stood up to leave, but Lowie caught Tahiri's hand with his paw, bringing her attention back to him.

[Why?]

The two Jedi stared into each others' eyes for a few seconds. Tahiri saw the saddened look of loss in his eyes, and Lowie saw a mixed look of fear and resolve in hers. She squeezed his paw and pulled her hand free.

"I can't face them yet," Tahiri said, backing away. "I'm sorry."

She disappeared with the Mandalorian leaving her confused friend behind. The waitress returned with his drink, and Ben sat down across the table from him.

"Who were they?" Ben asked. At nine years old, Lowie did not let the young Skywalker out of his sight for long, but he did command Ben to wait inside the café until after the meeting should something have gone wrong.

[Some lost travelers looking for a handout from a Jedi,] Lowie barked. [Forget about them. We should return to the base.]


	7. Brainstorm

Onimiman – He's one of my favourites. Everyone underestimates the Wooks...but I like 'em.

Sioux – I don't disagree if we were talking about cutting edge ships, but the Star Destroyer design has been used for 40+ years in universe...and even 30+ years before the _Falcon_ had a chunk of Star Destroyer armour installed on it. I read somewhere once that over 25,000 ISDs were built by the Empire under Palpatine's command. Many were blown up over the years...that debris would have been a gold mine for scavengers.

Lelouch – no problem. Hope you enjoy this one ;)

* * *

Sirens called the entire fleet into activity and the 5th Raiders jumped from sleep to preparation in under two seconds. Clothes were stripped off and armour strapped on, clicking and locking into position to protect the wearer. Jacen and Jaina, still somewhat unfamiliar with the armour, were assisted by the other 5th Raiders, and the entire group was still battle ready in under five minutes.

"To the assault ship!" Rjon called out. He snagged Jaina's arm as everyone filed out.

"Wazzup?" Jaina asked, still a little groggy from her sleep, but she fell in step with him behind the rest of the 5th Raiders as they marched toward the assault ship. The helmet HUD chrono indicated they got about six hours of sleep and she had been in the middle of a REM cycle when she woke, so she drew on the Force to bring herself to full alertness.

"I'll be piloting the assault ship out and ye'll piloting it back." Rjon slipped her a sealed flimsy envelope. "If anything happens to me, ye'll take my place on the transport. Do not open this unless you have to pilot the convoy ship. The coordinates for yer destination are there. When you arrive, follow the ship in front of ya. If all goes to plan, I expect that back sealed or ye get a long walk out a short airlock."

"Understood," Jaina said.

They reached the hanger bay and the entire 5th team ran across it to their assault ship. Fifteen Delta-class DX-9 stormtrooper transports lined the cargo bay and were being filled with troops streaming in from several access points around the hanger bay. Mechanics bustled around checking and rechecking the ships while making final preparations for the launch. The hanger bays were already open and protected by the magnetic shielding, allowing the hanger to be lit by the mottled blue and black of hyperspace.

"That thing's older than me," Jaina exclaimed as they neared the DX-9 with a giant "5" on it.

"Stragoron raided about fifty of them from an Imperial junkyard," Rjon explained. "The deck monkeys added shields, boosted the drive speed and doubled the ion cannons. Ain't no better fleet of salvagers in the galaxy."

The mechanic gave Rjon a thumbs up as he passed, cutting off any further conversation. They entered the roomy troop hold where the other ten members of the 5th Raiders were strapping themselves in along the benches lining the walls. Jaina and Rjon went past them into the cockpit, strapped into their designated seats and began final flight check preparations.

"Ever fly one o'these?"

"I can fly anything," Jaina responded. One of the displays she activated synchronized with the _Blaze of Glory_'s network and displayed a launch time of three minutes in the future.

"We'll see about that." Rjon hit a red button on the control stick. "5th Raiders prepped and ready for launch."

Voices rang across the comm as other teams announced their readiness to the controller and the seconds on the chronometer ticked by.

"See much combat?" Rjon asked. Jaina finally noticed a quaver in the man's voice and recognized that his continual attempts to converse with her were his way of fighting his nerves. He must have noticed that she was completely calm.

"More than my share in the Vong war," Jaina said. She smiled at him to try easing his discomfort, but he was staring out the view screen at hyperspace. "Stick close and you'll be fine."

The timer hit fifteen seconds and the _Blaze of Glory_ dropped out of hyperspace. Immediately Jaina could feel the thrum of the capital ship's weaponry blasting away at its targets and she knew why the Mandalorians felt so connected to their ships. At the five second mark, a green light began to flash to indicate the mission was a go.

"We're off!" Rjon called to the entire team. He throttled the DX-9 to three-quarters and blasted out of the hanger bay a second behind the transport on their port side. The streaks of blue ion cannon blasts and red turbolasers lanced toward the enemy ships among a hailstorm of fighters streaming toward the Sith convoy. Half a kilometre away from the _Blaze of Glory _hanger deck, Rjon swung the ship around to face the convoy and the HUD immediately identified their target among the other fourteen cargo ships. Jaina tweaked the display and five squadrons of fighters and two old Corellian corvettes began to glow.

"Four kilometres to target," Jaina announced. "We have a squadron closing to intercept us."

"Prep the flares an' angle the deflectors front," Rjon ordered. "We can take a small beating if we have to."

"Shields double front," Jaina responded. "Three clicks and closing."

"Whiptail squadron, Fifth Raiders," Rjon called out. "We have a squadron comin' at us."

"Keep on target, Fifth. We have your back."

"Thanks, Whiptail Lead."

A pair of concussion missiles slammed into the fore shields sending the DX-9 into a spin, but the shields absorbed any damage. Three fighters exploded not far from the DX-9 as the X-wings of Whiptail Squadron blasted through the enemy squadron of Mandalorian Gladiator assault fighters and unleashed a round of proton torpedoes.

"Don't just stare at 'em!" Rjon exclaimed. "Shoot back!"

Jaina found the weapon controls and targeted the nearest two fighters. What Rjon expected of her in a fight against a significantly more nimble craft, she did not know, but she unleashed a spray of seeker missiles with the hope that they would find their targets. When she glanced at the HUD she found their destination was within a kilometre.

"Prep the ship for docking," Rjon called to the team in the back. "Whiptail Lead, we're docking in ten seconds."

"Acknowledged, we'll keep these clowns off your back."

Rjon swung the ship around and dropped it over the airlock at a speed Jaina was not sure she could match. According to the sensors, the lower access hatch was within a centimetre of the cargo ship's airlock. He latched the ships together with the magnetic docking clamp and Jaina reset the shields to provide as much protection as possible, augmenting them with power from the now-idle engines.

"Stay 'ere," Rjon ordered as he departed, leaving Jaina to stare out at the battle above with only her sense of longing as company.

! #$%^&*()

Tahiri and her team discovered quite quickly that there was not much of an investigation done on the deaths that Lowie had informed them about on Nar Shadda. In fact, if the hacked records of what passed for the police department were any indication, beyond removing the bodies nothing had been done at all. Whatever authorities existed on Nar Shadda seemed more interested in clearing away bodies to eliminate rotting corpses from fouling their walk to wherever they were going than actually investigating what had happened.

The team discretely questioned the few witnesses that could be found hiding in local bars and viewed what security footage they could find, often relying on Tahiri's mind tricks to open closed doors, but had to be careful to not alert the authorities or local crime bosses to their investigation. Very little was found beyond a confirmation that their prey had been the murderers until Squeak scored a victory against the traffic control servers, finding a video of a junk store owner who was taken away in an ambulance to the Jabba The Hutt Memorial Hospital with a severe lightsaber-related injury.

While Tahiri and Trigger went to visit the junk shop, Lanos and Parmis decided to infiltrate the hospital. They dressed in what passed for street clothes in Nar Shadda, after assaulting and stripping two con artists that tried stealing their wallets, and approached the delivery door of the hospital with a large empty box and some loose slips of flimsy.

Lanos hammered his fist on the delivery door until it opened.

"What's so important that needs more than fifty knocks?" The irate Rodian who answered the door asked in very squeaky basic. "Air-lift only for medicine deliveries. Go away."

"Oops?" Lanos asked and slammed his fist into the Rodian's face. Parmis tossed the box aside and both Mandalorians picked up the Rodian. They found an empty janitor closet, took out two spare uniforms and gagged and tied the Rodian up with another before locking the green alien into the closet.

"How are we supposed to find this guy?" Parmis asked as they finished pulling their new uniforms on.

A chirp from Lanos's pocket seemed willing to answer the question. Lanos checked his mobile communicator and smiled.

"H-wing, room 422," Lanos said. "Blade was nice enough to deliver flowers. Grab that cart."

"Wouldn't it have been easier to just visit him as a visitor?"

"Visitors need to get ID'd with biometrics. It isn't good to leave a trail when you're going to torture information out of someone."

"Good enough." Parmis grabbed the janitor cart and followed his father into the hallway. Together they silently strode through the hallways smiling at doctors and nurses while ignoring any patients as any employee would. While passing another human janitor pushing a cart, Lanos snatched the ID badge off his shirt and clipped it to his own.

They reached the H-wing before a cute wide-eyed young nurse grabbed Parmis by the sleave.

"We have a 702 in room 112," she said and walked away.

"That's nice," Parmis said under his breath and followed after his father toward the elevator.

"Hey!" The nurse called after him, evidently not as oblivious to his departure as he thought she might be. "I said we have a 702 in room 112. You have to get over there now!"

"Go." Lanos mouthed and punched a button on the elevator to close the doors. As the doors closed, Parmis's face flared with betrayal, but Lanos gave him a rare smug smile.

Lanos exited the elevator on the fourth floor and strolled through the hallways looking for room 422. After five minutes he found the room, mostly because Blade was on her way out of it. They passed each other without any hint of recognition and Lanos closed the door behind him.

The injured junk store dealer had an oxygen mask over his face and a sizeable amount of bandaging plastered to his side. Evidently, bacta submersion treatment for the severe lightsaber burn in his chest was too expensive for this man.

"Doctor?" The man wheezed upon seeing Lanos.

"No," the old Mandalorian said, picking up the chart at the end of his bed. "I'm a bounty hunter, Mister…Rogan."

Rogan's eyes widened and he reached for the panic button, but the appearance of a holdout blaster in Lanos's hand halted the movement.

"I'm not here for _you_," Lanos said, putting the blaster away. "I'm here to make you an offer."

Rogan's eyes narrowed, but he said nothing.

"Tell me everything you know about the ones who put you here."

"What do I get in return?" Rogan finally asked.

"I'll be a good little bounty hunter and not blast your leg off."

"I'm dying anyway," Rogan said. "Maybe you'd be doing me a favour if you killed me."

Lanos reached into his pocket and pulled out two one-thousand credit chips and tossed them onto Rogan's chest. The injured man took a deep breath and pulled the mask off.

"It was some kid and a Bothan," Rogan said, examining one of the coins as if questioning its validity. "They needed parts for their YV-666. Took some battle damage."

Rogan took a few breaths from the mask and cleared a bout of coughs before continuing.

"The kid pulled a lightsaber on me when I demanded payment," Rogan said. "I'm just a part dealer trying to earn an honest living! I barely paid my rent this month. Those parts were worth twenty thousand, easy!"

"Did they say where they were going?" Lanos asked.

"It'll cost you," Rogan said, covering his mouth with the mask again. "I overheard the Bothan say where they were going next, but it'll cost you more than this."

"Name your price."

"Kill them," Rogan spat. He took a few more deep breaths. "If I'm going to die from this, I want to know they're dead too."

Lanos shook his head and pulled a pouch out of his pocket. He tossed it on the bed beside the man where it opened, spilling several more thousand-credit coins. Many more were inside.

"Buy your bacta and live, Rogan," Lanos said. "I'll take care of the Sith Lords."

"Yavin IV," Rogan said with disbelief, unable to tear his eyes away from the coins. By the time he finally looked up, the room was empty.

! #$%^&*()

The day long trek ended at a decrepit temple that looked ready to fall over at a moment's notice. Once a grand ziggurat built by some alien species long extinct, it was now one small explosion, or one big sneeze, away from being a massive pile of rocks. An entire third of it had fallen inward leaving a gaping hole that looked up toward the gas giant above.

Masakra approached a fallen pillar and examined the intricate carvings that decorated the stone. He traced the vines carved into the stone and noted the distinctive shape of the leaves from the many bushes they had chopped out of their way during their day-long hike. He remembered the leaves so distinctly because he had never seen a plant with blue leaves before...and after the day of hacking at them with his new lightsaber, he never wanted to see them again.

"This pillar looks like it was cut with a lightsaber," Masakra called out. "What do you think?"

Sekava did not answer since he was already on his way into the grand temple. Masakra followed his master, but shook his head.

"Why does it seem like a stupid idea going into the giant temple that looks like it wants to kill us?" Masakra asked himself. "Probably because it _is_ a stupid idea."

He reached the entrance and looked up at the slab of beautifully carved rock suspended by the door frame as if to beg it not to fall on him. A few seconds later he finally entered the temple and followed the short hallway into a central chamber that occupied the entire inside of the temple. Stone from the collapsed third of the building covered the otherwise perfectly flat ground, forcing Masakra to mind his steps as he approached his master. He looked up into the gaping hole and noticed that the orange globe of Yavin looked especially beautiful framed by the withering walls.

"Just a big pile of..."

"Shh!" Sekava hissed. "Stop looking and _feel_!"

Sekava reached out with his hands and stretched out with the Force, gathering something toward him. Slowly small shards of blue crystals that Masakra had not noticed dragged themselves across the ground toward Sekava. They pulled themselves together in front of the Sith Lord to form a giant blue crystal. Masakra finally realized that this is what had called them here and walked towards the crystal with his mouth agape. Looking into the crystal he could feel the spirits within reaching out to caress him, trying to pass on ancient knowledge. Rather than resist, he let the crystal spirit in and it took over his senses.

He saw himself standing on the giant temple mere days after it had been constructed, looking down at hoards of alien workers celebrating their success under the bright orange light of the gas planet above. He could feel their life essences in his grasp, almost a tangible presence that he could grab and pull towards him. To his amazement, he did just that. The workers below stopped celebrating as they felt their lives drain away. Panic ensued and they tried running away, but there was nowhere to hide from Masakra's power. The workers fell to their knees, crying in agony as their life energies coalesced into a brilliant blue crystal...

! #$%^&*()

Jacen was already awake five seconds before the alarm went off. As part of the recovery from his unique Force-debilitating injury, he could not attempt to control the Force whatsoever lest he cause damage to the delicate and timely healing process. After spending three months in the future on Zonoma learning to not use the Force, he became pretty good at it. But that did not mean that the Force could not control _him_. During the last five months of his healing he found himself unable to control the influences that Jedi normally learn to gauge and react to as necessary. One such reaction included waking up _just_ before something would happen. Like Anakin bursting into tears in the middle of the night. Or Tenel Ka's alarm that she used before one of her early meetings. Or when that annoying little bird that made a nest just above their bedroom balcony sang every morning at dawn.

It was no surprise to Jacen then that he was suddenly wide awake moments before the "get to your ship!" alarm went off. The first thing he noticed was Jaina bounding nearly a metre off her bunk in surprise and scrambling to get out of her cot and toward her locker to get her gear on. Jacen calmly followed her to his locker and punched in the code he had programmed in the night before. It popped open easily to reveal the stashed weaponry inside. He pulled his shirt off and threw it onto the top shelf of the locker when the Force gave him another flash of intuition. Or, perhaps, a warning.

"Good morning," a sweet voice said to Jacen's right. He turned and saw a beautiful human female with long black hair smiling up at him, which made him incredibly conscious of the fact that he was not wearing a shirt.

"Morning," Jacen said politely with a smile. He dug around the locker for his combat suit shirt, but only found a one-piece jump suit.

"Sleep well?" The woman asked as she pulled her own shirt off. Jacen turned away to assess the contents of his locker as he worked his pants off.

"Well enough, I guess," he replied. He worked as quickly as he could getting his pants off and hopping into the one-piece while trying to ignore the fact that the very fit woman beside him – and his sister on the other side of him – was in her underwear doing the same thing. He finally got into the suit and realized the fastener was on his back side. Before he could ask Jaina for help, he felt the back of his suit being tugged. Over his shoulder he saw the woman zipping up his back side with a smile.

"My turn," she said and turned around. She held up her hair and waited expectantly for Jacen to secure her outfit. He tried to ignore the way the outfit hugged her curvy figure and minimize skin contact as he hastily closed the black material to hide her skin and lacy black underwear, nearly catching her skin in the fastener in the process.

"Thanks. Boots on first, then I'll put your armour on and you get to do mine. I'm Lana, by the way."

"Jenos," Jacen said, remembering to stay in character.

They both clamped their boots on and Lana reached into Jacen's locker to extract two heavy plates of armour, making sure to rub against him in the process with a provocative smile on her face. She held one to his left thigh and pressed a button that caused it to curl around his leg and lock itself into place. She did the same to his right side and then extracted two chest plates. She had him hold the front in place while she linked the back panel to it and locked it in. After that, Jacen did the same for her. They strapped on their own belts with dagger, explosives, and sidearm attached before pulling their helmets out. Lana took the time to put a hairnet on and carefully tucked her hair into it before putting the helmet on.

The first thing Jacen noticed was the HUD that immediately identified Lana, and the second was that her helmet was painted like a Vornskr's skull. A quick glance around the room showed him that everyone's armour looked equally terrifying.

"To the assault ship!" Captain Rjon called out, and Jacen grabbed his assault rifle and spare energy packs. He took one last look through the locker to make sure he had everything and slammed the door shut. Jaina had been held back by Rjon, and Lana was already three paces ahead of him, so he reluctantly hustled to join her in the jog following the rest of the 5th Raiders.

"How does it fit?" Lana asked.

"Almost as well as Mandalorian armour," Jacen said. "Though I'm not sure where to put the spare blaster packs. The armour's a bit different from the training gear."

"Right bicep, and left hip."

Jacen slapped the two blaster packs to those locations and they magnetically attached themselves without hesitation.

The team entered an oversized door and found themselves in a hanger bay lined with several old assault transports and dozens of mechanics bustling about making final preparations on the ships. The hanger bay was already open, making Jacen glad that he had the insulating armour on to protect against the chill of space. While the magnetic shielding held the atmosphere, did not prevent heat loss. They jogged to the transport with a giant "5" on it and bounded up the loading ramp. The spacious interior, regularly designed for about thirty troops, left plenty of room for the team of twelve and some cargo as well. They spread out to take advantage of the room, but still stayed relatively close to the middle of the bay where they would be exiting the ship through the lower airlock. Jacen took a seat near a burly-looking being that was indicated to be 'Raggy' on the HUD and Lana sat right up beside him. If she had any desire to hide her attraction to her newfound friend, she was not giving any indication of such whatsoever.

"Let me help with the straps," Lana offered.

Jacen quickly pulled the straps on and secured himself in place.

"I've been on a few of these before," Jacen said, trying to keep a smile in his voice. As unwanted as her advances were, he did not want to upset her. But it did not stop Raggy from laughing.

"New meat, Lana?"

Based on the gruff voice, Jacen thought Raggy might either be a rather short Wookiee or a rather big cat that learned Basic.

"I just met her five minutes ago," Jacen said.

"Did you wake up with her in your bed?" Raggy laughed even louder and Jacen could sense Lana's mood darken from his fledging Force connection. She grabbed his arm and put her helmet against his.

"He's just jealous of the attention I'm giving you."

Rjon and Jaina walked past, breaking Lana's attention away from Jacen and she strapped herself in.

"Fraternizing isn't allowed without permission," Raggy warned, still chuckling away. "Don't let her get her claws in."

"You don't even know what love is!" Lana hissed to Raggy. "This is it. I know it!"

_By the Force, what did I do to deserve this?_ Jacen thought desperately. _What I wouldn't give for a good mind trick right now._

"I'm actually ma..."

"Madly in love with me too?" Lana asked with a frightening level of excitement in her voice. "See Raggy? We're going to make _babies_!"

"Kill me," Jacen pleaded to the howling Raggy. "Please. Make it quick and painful."

Before he could get an answer from the laughing man, Rjon announced their departure and the ship took off. Several times the transport bounced around from weapons fire and Jacen experienced a feeling he rarely felt in combat situations before – complete helplessness. There was nothing he could do but hope they made it to their destination in one piece without the transport being blasted to bits.

After a few intense moments of bouncing around that felt like hours, Rjon gave the signal to prepare the ship to dock. Everyone proceeded to unbuckle their straps and hang onto the support rods lining the bay. The two middle-most Vornskrs prepared the docking clamp and seconds later Jacen felt the metallic impact of the assault transport landing on its destination.

"Get that airlock open and take that ship," Rjon shouted on his way into the cargo bay. "We have five minutes to get out of here!"

One Vornskr opened the iris airlock and two more started to work on the locks.

"Clear!" one shouted, and keyed the final sequence. The entire squad jumped through the airlock one-by-one with blasters at the ready.

Jacen was the fifth one through. He jumped through the hole and landed on the ground, thankful the gravity fields were aligned. He went shoulder-to-shoulder with Raggy down the main corridor toward the cargo bay and his HUD indicated that Lana and two others were following. The other six members of the assault team went toward the cockpit, but Jacen's care about them disappeared when a blaster bolt turned a section of the bulkhead near his head into molten metal.

Jacen and Raggy dove behind some cargo containers and were followed by the other Vornskrs. Jacen popped his head out from his shelter and caught sight of two enemies trying to blast his head off. The Force went wild around him showing him danger coming from multiple directions and nearly overwhelming his senses. He took a deep breath and focused his mind, trying to ignore the Force without controlling it.

He held two fingers up to Raggy and pointed in the general directions of his targets. Raggy nodded and sent the other two Vornskrs around the side of the cargo bay to flank the enemy. He signalled for Jacen to lay suppressing fire. Together they kept the enemies busy until Jacen's danger sense flared up again. Without thinking, he grabbed the short sword from the butt of his rifle and swung the handle directly at Lana's head, extending the blade to catch a red lightsaber before it bisected her. Jacen thrust his knee up and pushed his foot out, catching the Sith Lord with a powerful front kick that left him coughing for air for a moment.

Jacen did not give him the chance to catch his breath. He pushed past Lana and hammered at the lightsaber with his short blade repeatedly until he caught an opening and slashed at the Sith Lord's face with his now-glowing sword. The red lightsaber barely caught the sword and the Sith Lord held the short sword in a bind until it began to melt. Two blaster bolts rang out and the Sith Lord dropped to his knees in pain, lightsaber held limply to the side.

"You stay away from my boyfriend," Lana said dangerously. She kicked the lightsaber out of the Sith's hand, put her assault rifle to his head and pulled the trigger, spraying the bulkhead with his brains.

Lana turned to Jacen and put a hand delicately on his helmet.

"Nobody hurts my sweetie," she said in a sugary-sweet voice that horrified Jacen for more reasons than one.

"Cargo bay secure," Raggy reported, half laughing.

"Cockpit secure, but Rjon's down," one of the Vornskrs reported. "I don't suppose anyone knows first aid?"

Jacen tossed his now-useless sword aside and slowed only long enough to pick up the Sith lightsaber and his assault rifle.

"What's his status?"

"Blaster bolt to the leg," the voice responded. "Not too serious, but he can't fly."

"Apply pressure to the wound. I'll be right there," Jacen ordered. "Kailey, we have a problem."

! #$%^&*()

"Kailey, we have a problem."

"What's wrong, Jenos?" Jaina asked. Whiptail squadron had done a good job of keeping the Mandalorian fighters off their backs, and as far as she could tell from the radio chatter and HUD, the mission was all but complete.

"Rjon was shot and I'm the only one with any medical training," Jacen said. "But we need someone to fly this thing to the destination, wherever that is."

"I'll do that, you take care of Rjon." Jaina jumped up from her seat and pulled the envelope from her pocket. "Rjon gave me the coordinates."

"Get down there. We're bringing Rjon back to the transport. And be careful – there was a Sith Lord aboard. We think the ship is clear though."

Jaina's heart sunk. Her lightsaber was safely stored on the _Solo Quest_, so if there was another Sith Lord biding its time she would have only minimal defence against it.

Jaina retreated to the back of the assault ship and went through the crowd of Vornskrs extracting their team from the cargo ship using a rope attached to a tripod. After Rjon came up, Jaina jumped down and was greeted by Jacen. He discretely attached a lightsaber to her belt and pulled himself up the rope as a burly-looking Vornskr led her to the cockpit and left her alone.

"Resealing the airlocks," a voice told Jaina. She pulled the envelope open and took a look at the coordinates. To her horror, she recognized them.

_Kashyyyk? Why would the Wookiees be involved in piracy?_

~! #$%^&*()

Jacen hoisted himself into the cargo bay and immediately went to Rjon's side. The man was sputtering nonsense and trying to get up, clearly in shock from being shot.

"Medkit?" Jacen asked to the nearest person. "I need to sedate him before he hurts himself."

The last time Jacen had diagnosed someone without the Force, he was in the Yuuzhan Vong world brain nursery, but he had learned a lot of valuable Force healing techniques since then that could get Rjon up to speed in mere hours. As it was, he still did not want to take the chance of destroying his Force sensitivity and expose himself as a Jedi for something as treatable as a blaster bolt wound.

Jacen looked up and saw Raggy being pulled into the ship and the airlocks being sealed.

"Anyone know how to fly this thing?"

"I'm sure we can figure it out," Raggy said. Jacen noticed he grabbed Lana's arm and pulled her away with him. "Better strap in y'all. This won't be the smoothest flight."

Someone finally returned with the medikit and Jacen fished out a bacta shot and a sedative. He pulled Rjon's helmet off and exposed the carotid artery. He jabbed the bacta shot directly into the artery and followed it with the sedative. Immediately Rjon went unconscious. The ship lurched, indicating it had taken off from the cargo ship and Jacen had to drop to his elbows over Rjon to stabilize himself. After the shaky flight stabilized, Jacen proceeded to pull the armour plating off Rjon's leg and cut the jumpsuit away from the blaster burn. He knew it looked bad, but the energy had partially cauterized the skin and it just missed the artery on the inside of the leg. Rather than try to extract any of the twisted metal of the armour that had fused itself to the injury, Jacen applied the bacta patch directly over the entire injury. There was not really much else that could be done until they reached a medical facility, so Jacen worked his way to the cockpit. The _Blaze of Glory_ almost completely filled the viewscreen, but that was the least of his concerns. With the appearance of Jacen, Lana seemed to want to impress him and let him know that _she_ was the one in command.

"Fly straighter, we can't dock like this."

"I was kinda hoping to just crash onto the side of the ship and let them scrape us off." Raggy laughed at his own joke.

"Please tell me you know how to land this boat," Jacen said.

"Isn't it obvious the way he's flying?"

"I did it once in a simulator," Raggy said, still chuckling. "I ended up on the ground, but that's about it."

"Out," Jacen said to Lana. They were thirty seconds to docking based on the HUD.

"But I'm the pilot!"

"You're in the co-pilot seat," Jacen said. He grabbed her by an equipment hook on the back of her armour and yanked her out of the chair despite her cry of dismay. He did not have time to waste. He dropped into the seat and transferred the controls to his side.

"_Blaze_, this is Jenos Idanian in the Fifth Raider assault transport," Jacen said. "We're coming in hot and we have an injured man. Please have a med team standing by."

"Acknowledged, Fifth. Please dock in slot seven and lower your approach speed. You're coming in too hot."

Jacen slammed the throttle to the back wall to reverse fire the engines and Lana nearly ended up on the control panel.

"Still too fast, Fifth. Slow down!"

He ignored the controller's cries and, mere metres in front of the magnetic shielding protecting the hanger, he slammed his right foot on the rudder. The ship swung around with surprising agility and Jacen pushed the throttle to full again and pulled it to naught. The transport slipped through the magnetic field and stopped all momentum just above the landing pad. He eased the ship down on thrusters, gently tapping it on the hanger deck.

Jacen was the first one out of the cockpit and he ran across the troop bay to lower the boarding ramp. A team of medics rushed up the ramp and were seconds behind Jacen to Rjon's side. He helped them load the unconscious man onto a stretcher and they carried him away while the other Raiders watched. Finally relieved of Rjon, Jacen leaned against the piston support of the loading ramp trying to catch his breath after the medics had disappeared. As they exited, each of the 5th Raiders slapped Jacen on the back on the way out of the assault transport and complimented him on his work. The last one out grabbed him by the arm and led him toward the locker room where they had started their day not even half an hour earlier.

"That's my hero," Lana said in a sweet girly voice that froze Jacen's heart. "You'll make a great daddy."

~! #$%^&*()

Kashyyyk's beautiful green foliage welcomed Jaina's stolen cargo ship as she followed the convoy into the depths of the giant forest. The entire operation had gone off without a hitch – apparently her cargo ship was the only one with a Sith Lord aboard – and the _Blaze of Glory_ was the last ship waiting to enter hyperspace when Jaina had left the system. She could hardly believe that fifteen cargo ships had been boarded, taken, and had jumped to hyperspace in under twenty minutes from the time the pirate fleet had entered the system. The Vornskrs had not even bothered to jam communications since they knew they would be gone before any help could arrive, and the distress call would only spread their reputation.

The cargo ships went through a tunnel of cleared branches and entered a lit clearing on the jungle floor, entirely hidden from view. Fences had been erected to keep the wild predators at bay, and Wookiees and humans ran around directing the fifteen ships to a section of the clearing to land. Jaina squeezed her cargo ship right up against the one that landed before her and powered down the engines. She made her way to the back of the ship and took her helmet off as the cargo loading ramp dropped. Three Wookiees bounded up the ramp, including one with a dark streak on his forehead and a lightsaber at his belt.

"Lowie?" Jaina demanded. "What the hell are you doing here? Where's Ben?"

Lowie looked equally shocked to see her. He grabbed her by the arm and pulled her back into the cargo ship cockpit away from the others.

[Where is Rjon?] Lowie demanded. [How did you get on this ship?]

"Rjon got shot," Jaina explained, surprised her friend knew her commander. "I was his backup. I'm going by Kailey Idanian. How did you get in here?"

[Isn't it obvious?] Lowie held up his left arm to show off a brilliant sapphire bracelet. He touched it with the Force and the Black Vornskr logo appeared for a moment like a hologram hovering above his wrist.

Still confused about why Lowie's identification was a blue crystal, Jaina pulled off her glove and showed off her own copper ring, likewise displaying the Vornskr logo but without using the Force.

[Go join the others or people will be suspicious,] Lowie ordered. [These supplies are for supporting our efforts in protecting Kashyyyk from the Sith.]

"You made a deal with pirates?" Jaina demanded.

[Let's go,] Lowie barked. He grabbed her arm and led her out of the ship. At the boarding ramp he let go of her arm and escorted her to the troop transport that would reunite her with the fleet.

When they reached the ship, Lowie turned his back to her and walked away without a word, leaving Jaina with her very troubled thoughts.

~! #$%^&*()

During the entire trip back to the _Blaze of Glory_, Jaina ran over the events on Kashyyyk repeatedly trying to make sense of everything surrounding Lowie. First, the fact that he was involved and not hiding his identity as a Jedi completely threw her off. Second, she knew for a fact that Lowie had never been assigned to infiltrate the Black Vornskrs by the Jedi Council. If he had, her mission would not have existed. Third, the fact that the Black Vornskrs were dropping off supplies to Kashyyyk for defence purposes seemed to fly in the face of everything she knew about pirate organizations. After docking, Jaina returned to the empty locker room and replaced her battle suit in her locker. The jumpsuit went in with the stack of other jumpsuits designated for cleaning and she decided to bring the Sith lightsaber back to the _Solo Quest_ wrapped in a jacket slung over her arm.

When Jaina reached the _Solo Quest_ and punched her pass code into the security panel, the boarding ramp did not open. She punched it in again, but it still refused to open. She hit the communication button.

"Jacen, what the hell is going on?"

The ramp lowered half way and Jaina saw the barrel of a blaster rifle pointed at her.

"Are you alone?" Her brother's voice came from above.

Jaina looked around helplessly.

"Yeah!"

"Quick, get in!"

Jaina tossed her jacket and the lightsaber onto the ramp and then jumped up and hoisted herself into the ship. She barely got in before the ramp closed up again. She heard a click from her brother's blaster and saw his thumb over the safety.

"You had the safety off?" Jaina demanded.

"I couldn't take the risk," Jacen said reasonably. Even without the twin bond she could see he was spooked.

"That's a Retribution carbine with a hair trigger. You could've shot me!"

"It was on stun," Jacen dismissed her and retreated back to the sitting area outside his quarters. He took his favourite arm chair and Jaina sat on the couch across from him.

"She's an absolute menace, that girl," Jacen said, still clutching the blaster rifle. "When we got back she all but undressed me herself and insisted we take a shower together. Of course, I refused! But she kept hanging off me and telling everyone how amazing I was fighting off the Sith Lord with the sword. She kept going on about how amazing my sword work was. Did I mention she shot him?"

Jacen looked up at his sister, eyes wide with a mixture of fear and a look that suggested he questioned his own sanity.

"She shot the Sith Lord point blank to the head and said I was her boyfriend. Her _boyfriend_. I'm already married! I barely met her half an hour before and she was getting almost naked in front of me and then calling me her boyfriend and trying to take a shower with me! She's _psycho_!"

"Jacen." Jaina struggled to find the right words. "I really have no idea who or what you're talking about, but you make it sound like we were on completely different missions with completely different people. I, however, have something important to say. Lowie is a member of the Black Vornskrs."

"Lowie?" Jacen asked, finally focused. In the future, Lowie had helped Jacen out as a member of the Vornskrs, but he did not yet want Jaina to know of their friend's affiliation with the pirate organization. He decided it best to play dumb. "Are you sure? I mean, this is _Lowie_ we're talking about. Why would he be involved in pirates?"

"Something was wrong," Jaina said. "He was openly wearing his lightsaber and he had this bracelet on that looked like it was carved from a giant sapphire. He touched it with the Force to make the Black Vornskr image appear. And I don't know where Ben was. I hope he's not mixed up in it, too."

_Sapphire_, Jacen recalled. _Eriana's special forces. Jedi and those she trusts the most to operate outside the pirate organization and support it from the back side._

"Maybe this is an indication of what I've been trying to tell you," Jacen said carefully. He finally put the carbine onto the table beside his chair. "There is no way Lowie would get involved in something...dark. And he sure wouldn't drag Ben into something like that either. You'd have to be pretty stupid to try turning Uncle Luke's son to the Dark Side, and Lowie isn't stupid."

"We need to get to the bottom of this," Jaina said determinately. "If Eriana is corrupting Jedi, especially Council members, this situation is a lot worse than I originally thought."

A chime sounded to indicate someone was at the main loading ramp and Jacen's hand darted to the blaster carbine. Jaina rolled her eyes and activated the flat panel holodisplay to see an image of General Stragoron waiting outside.

"Stragoron," Jaina said. She hit the remote activation and led her brother toward the boarding ramp.

"My little Indanians," Stragoron said with a grin upon seeing his newest recruits descending from the ship ramp. "I heard about your work on the raid. At this rate you two will be getting a promotion in no time."

"Thank you, General," Jaina said.

"Thank _you_, Kailey. And, you, Jenos. Rjon will survive thanks to your quick thinking and fancy piloting. Now, I have a mission that I think you two and this ship will be ideally suited for..."

* * *

A/N: Biggest chapter...probably could've divided it, but I thought that would've been cruel and have taken away from the action. I tried showing how two people can perceive the same events differently and I think it worked. Thoughts?


	8. Patience

Sioux: Yeah, too many Anakins. I just thought I'd add to the confusion J Don't worry...Jaina will have her fun.

Lelouch: That's a good name. I think I'll change it.

Onimiman: You should meet my ex...

Sorry about the delay. There's enough snow on my front lawn to put half of Europe out of commission, so I spent most of yesterday shovelling that crap and killing zombies. Hope you enjoy this one...it's short, but it gets me to where I need to be for the next chapter.

* * *

The _Solo Quest_ landed in the forest clearing on Mimban that acted as a makeshift spaceport for the nearby thaissen crystal mine. Several other small frigates and fighters were splayed out on the patch of grass in a pattern that seemed to be of the individual pilot's choosing. At the middle of the spaceport sat a dumpy looking circular building that served as the bar, restaurant, and inn. Several swoop bikes were parked outside the building as well as a relatively giant transport truck with a shipping container on the back.

Jacen and Jaina, wearing disguises that included facial modification technologies, left instructions with Womprat to secure the ship while they left for the lonely building. A pathetic tune carried through the open windows as the entertainer droned on about the many losses in his life. Jaina suspected the alcohol-inebriated man wanted to talk more than sing as none of the slurred words rhymed and he repeatedly plucked the same string on his instrument every two or three sentences. She pushed the door open and revealed the interior that fit the character of the music perfectly.

"Charming," Jacen whispered.

An old, highly polished wooden bar stood out in the middle of the room with a red-haired Zeltron female bartender behind it polishing a glass with a blue cloth. The glare she offered the newcomers made them feel like they had interrupted something important. The musician stopped and stared at them, as did everyone in the bar. Even the couple climbing the stairwell to the second level froze to take a look at them.

Jaina ignored them and walked up to the bar with her brother in tow. Apparently the lack of weaponry being wielded had created sufficient disinterest for everyone to return to what they were doing. "Two Nubian rums," Jaina ordered, ignoring the continued stare of the bartender. "In clean glasses."

The bartender stared at the new barflies long enough that Jaina began to wonder if she had been heard, but eventually put the glass down and pulled out the bottle of rum from under the bar.

"Looking for cargo?" A gruff voice asked behind Jaina. She turned around slowly to look at a man whose voice betrayed his appearance. A tall near-human, Jaina suspected Chev, wore an outfit so smart that she suspected he was a banker who had gotten himself lost.

"Looking for some crystal," Jaina said, passing the first glass of rum to her brother.

The near-human showed smiled. "How much can you haul?"

"Five tonnes," Jacen said and took a sip from his rum. He displayed the activated logo on his ring, as instructed by Stragoron.

"Excellent," the near-human grunted, his own silver ring displaying the Vornskr logo in return. "Our people will load your ship with the cargo within the hour."

Without another word the near-human departed, leaving the siblings to their drinks.

"Trusting bunch," Jacen commented. "He didn't even ask for a down payment."

Jaina drained half of her rum.

"We'll pay when we get the cargo."

"I was referring to the fact that we are buying crystals that, in the right devices, are capable of sensing Force-users," Jacen elaborated quietly. "Or do you know nothing of thaissen crystals?"

Jaina shot him an annoyed glance and pounded back the rest of her rum. He followed suit and they exited the bar together.

"At the very least," Jacen continued now that they were out in the open surrounded by sounds of engines being warmed up and mechanics swearing at each other. "Why are we bringing crystals that can focus energy beams, such as blasters, to our enemy on Kuat? This mission really doesn't make much sense at all."

"Could be a test," Jaina mused. "To see how well we'll protect the cargo."

"I think more is at play here," Jacen said as they arrived at the ship. Jaina greeted the loading crew and paid for the cargo as Jacen went to punch a code into the panel beside the cargo bay door and lower the ramp. Within an hour the ship was loaded and the twins completed the pre-flight check. While Jacen went to double check the cargo, Jaina went to the cockpit to complete the pre-flight but was intercepted by Womprat at the doorway.

"Warning: I would like to inform your meatbagness that I have detected a homing signal within the cargo. Perhaps we should deactivate it."

"Go tell Jacen," Jaina ordered. "He's in the cargo bay."

Five minutes later Jacen appeared in the cockpit and strapped himself in to the co-pilot seat.

"I found the tracker," Jacen said, appearing beside the two of them. "Something's definitely wrong here. We'll leave it for now and see what happens. Let's get off this rock."

"Stop acting like you're in charge," Jaina said. She activated the repulsors and brought the ship into the air. "My mission, remember?"

"My ship," Jacen countered.

Jaina rolled her eyes and engaged the sublight engines. Twenty minutes later the ship jumped into hyperspace and the twins waited.

Jacen looked at his sister.

Jaina looked at her brother.

They both looked at the chrono.

They looked back at each other.

"This is nice," Jacen commented.

"I don't think they're going to use gravity wells on us this time."

"Doesn't appear so."

They sat in silence for another full minute.

"Lunch time?"

"Oh, yeah."

! #$%^&*()

"Stop your gawking," Sekava slapped his apprentice across the face. The giant crystal was leaning against the side of the wall, discarded from whatever need Sekava had for it. "We're done here."

Sekava started to leave, but Masakra looked at him in disbelief. The vision was so _powerful_. He felt like he could imitate exactly what he had done, and that was just the beginning!

"Master, we must study this!" Masakra shouted. "There is _real_ power to be learned here!"

"I'm leaving, and so are you." Sekava's voice echoed from the hallway. "This place is coming down."

Before he could beg Sekava to bring the crystal, the wall above it began to collapse. The first rocks that fell left giant splinters across the surface of the crystal, obstructing the haunting image of a face that Masakra would one day swear he saw staring back at him. He sprinted out of the temple and slowed only once he reached his master's side. Behind the two Sith Lords, the temple crumbled to its final rest.

"We must go to Coruscant," Sekava finally said once they were into the jungle following the path they had made. "We will learn much there, and your training must continue. We have been here too long."

"We just got here a couple hours ago," Masakra said. He glanced at his chrono and stopped in his tracks. Almost two _days_ had passed staring into that giant blue crystal. Masakra looked back at the temple one last time. He knew there would be no more answers there, but with his appetite for knowledge whet, he had plenty of questions. He ran to catch up with his master and contemplate the power of the Dark Side.


	9. Personal Growth

Ranger - always great to hear from you. I do like that name, but I think that might be better for a spinoff ;) In DC, the body was constructed by Lando. The Nar Shadda body would still be there at the time of DC, provided nobody found the location or that area of the was destroyed.

Sioux - The real question is...why didn't Jacen disable it?

Onimi - just like your review ;)

Hope you enjoy this one. It's a bit longer this time.

* * *

Jacen sat in his quarters poring over more of the records that HK-47 had extracted for him in the future from the Sith database. He found several more references to the talisman's power of reducing the effects of aging, but found little more about its location beyond that Soora Bulq had retrieved it from a planet with a nebulous ring in the Unknown Regions. Unfortunately, the Unknown Regions encompassed more than a fifth of the galaxy and was, as the name suggested, largely uncharted.

"We're dropping out in five minutes," Jaina's thoroughly annoyed voice came from the wall comm. "Feel free to join me if you're done hiding in your room."

_Maybe I shouldn't have disappeared after lunch_, Jacen thought. _If she knew what I'm trying to do, she'd probably understand, but I don't think she's ready for that._

Jacen pulled the datacard from the terminal and placed it in the protective box in his desk. His hand hovered above the Corusca gem ring for a moment so he picked it up. The internal structure shone with yellow light trapped eons ago and the Force presence of Eriana from almost eighty years of wear. It was no different from how a lightsaber exhibits the presence of its owner, but at the same time it felt much more...intimate. Although Eriana had set the ring to respond to him, it was her identity that still dominated the ring.

He slipped his boot off and put the ring under the arch of the sole. After replacing the boot, he grabbed the portable scanner that he had forgotten to use over the last week. After a quick scan, a slow smile spread across his face.

Target Reached. 100% healed.

! #$%^&*()

The _Solo Quest_ dropped out of hyperspace near Humbarine and was immediately fired on by ion cannon blasts. Jaina sent the ship into a tight spiralling dive that sent Womprat tumbling around the cockpit. The droid was barely able to latch his magnetic feet on the ceiling when Jaina pulled out of the spin and skimmed the surface of a gunship as she evaded fire from surrounding ships.

"Looks like a blockade of twenty ships," Jacen reported. "Let's try to get out of here."

"I think we can fight our way through," Jaina said. She was still convinced they were being tested.

"Not in my ship!" Jacen exclaimed. "Look, they're launching fighters. Let's bug out while we can."

Jaina ignored him and slammed the throttles to the wall, accelerating toward a small gap in the blockade.

"Fighters closing from all sides! It's a trap!"

"Stop your whining," Jaina ordered. A second later an ion cannon blast slammed into the cockpit and blue electrical currents coursed across the dash.

"Sithspit!" Jacen cursed. "You okay?"

"Yeah, but the ship is dead," Jaina said dejectedly. She tried hitting buttons and flicking switches while avoiding the electrical currents, but nothing happened. "They must have one hell of a power source behind that cannon to drop every system in this ship."

"You've got that right," Jacen agreed. The ship lurched, and Jacen looked out the viewport. "Probably pirates. Looks like they're towing us to that Star Destroyer."

"Do you want to actually defend the ship this time?" Jaina asked smartly.

"No point if the magnetic shielding is down," he responded. "They'll just cut their way through. We'll have to surrender."

"Who do you think they are?"

"Black Vornskrs," Jacen said. "Yeah, they're definitely Vornskrs. Look at the logos on the fighters."

"But we're one of them!"  
"Tell them that," Jacen suggested. "Oh, wait, you got our radio fried by flying into an ion cannon blast. Never mind. I think they picked up the transponder in the cargo."

"It must have been planted by that Chev," Jaina protested. "This has to be a test."

"I don't know," Jacen said as the capital ship – an old Mark II Imperial Star Destroyer – loomed closer. "Seems like some pretty big guns for a test."

The siblings sat in silence as the ship entered the cargo bay and was lowered to the deck with a tractor beam. Outside the front they could see rows of troops in Raider battle armour lining up around the _Quest_.

"Eriana's too smart to make a stationary base," Jacen broke the silence. "She'll be on one of the big command ships leading a fleet. If we're lucky, she might be on this command ship. Let's go unlock the loading ramp before they try breaking it open. I think my ship has suffered enough as it is."

Jacen stood up and took half a step toward the door before a sharp pain knocked him backward, almost landing him on top of his sister.

"Well done," Jaina said.

"What was that?" Jacen asked, blinking the tears out of his eyes and rubbing his forehead.

"It looks like your stupid droid got fried by the ion cannon and is stuck to the ceiling," Jaina replied. "Shake it off, we have to go get arrested."

"Go ahead, I'll be right there." Jacen waved her off, still rubbing his forehead. She departed for the boarding ramp and Jacen finally pulled himself to his feet. By the time he arrived Jaina was just about to lower the ramp.

"Ready?"

"As I'll ever be." Jacen linked his fingers behind his head and Jaina pulled the release. The ramp lowered itself down slowly, supported by the residual support of the pneumatic pistons, to reveal at least a dozen troops pointing rifles at the twins.

"Come out slowly with your hands...like his." A voice called out.

Jaina put her hands behind her head and the two of them walked to the end of the boarding ramp.

"We are members of the Black Vornskrs," Jaina called out.

"Carrying illegal cargo to the enemy," one of the commanders called out. "Throw 'em in the brig and empty the cargo. We'll show them what we do to traitors."

* * *

A small green orb against the backdrop of a bright orange sphere, to Tahiri Yavin IV brought back a bittersweet overload of memories that tightened her chest and threatened to crush her heart. Yavin IV was the first place she had lived after she left Tattooine. It was where she met Anakin and caused plenty of trouble with him while they learned the ways of the Jedi. It was also where she was captured by the Yuuzhan Vong and received the three scars on her forehead, an outward reminder of the mental damage she had suffered when they tried shaping a new personality for her.

As always, Riina, the Yuuzhan Vong personality in her mind, stepped in to console Tahiri and ease the discomfort of being so close to the source of great pain. She shook her head and looked to Lanos, sitting patiently beside her, and then to Squeak sitting behind him. Squeak was intently analyzing the data on sensors while Lanos slowly brought the ship closer to Yavin IV. The plan was to stay inconspicuous to sensors, using minimal power to sneak up on Sekava's ship.

"I have an energy spike," Squeak said quietly. "One ship exiting the atmosphere."

"Extrapolate their destination using their vector," Lanos ordered.

"Tracking."

Seconds crawled by like hours as Squeak's fingers clicked and clacked across the keyboards, gathering as much sensor data as possible and entering it into his modified navicomputer. The other ship jumped to hyperspace, and Squeak finished his calculations, oblivious to the tension in the air.

"Looks like they're heading coreward along the Daragon Trail," Squeak finally said. "Based on the time they spent travelling along their final vector before jumping, I can extrapolate the distance based on the computational speed of the standard navicomputer of that model of freighter..."

"Give me the possible destinations," Lanos finally demanded.

"Coruscant," Squeak said, a triumphant grin plastered on his boyish face. "Course already laid in."

"You're sure?" Tahiri asked. "There are a thousand planets between here and Coruscant."

"The YV-666 light freighter is one of the few freighters that can make dramatic course changes while in hyperspace, which would be necessary to do to go to Coruscant along the Daragon Trail, switching to the Permelian Trade Route," Squeak said. "It takes eight milliseconds per lightyear to calculate a relatively straight destination using the stock navicomputer – which is only one of two navicomputer designs that can calculate course corrections before hyperspace is entered – and fifty-two milliseconds per degree of course variation. Based on the amount of time they would have used to calculate the hyperspace jump, the only other places they could be going to are Taanab, which is under lockdown for a planet-wide outbreak of the Tarkasian flu right now, or right through the deep core to somewhere pretty close to the edge of the galaxy, assuming they don't slam into one of the many densely packed stars in the middle of the deep core."

"Entering hyperspace," Lanos said in response and pulled the lever that elongated the stars and catapulted the ship into the familiar tunnel of blue and black.

Tahiri sighed in relief the second the ship was in hyperspace, but did not leave her chair. Squeak disappeared after a couple minutes, leaving her and Lanos in silence.

"That wasn't easy on you," Lanos said. It was not a question.

"I've met Jedi Masters who show less insight into the minds of others than you," Tahiri said. "What is your secret?"

"I'm a Sith Lord in disguise." Lanos rolled his eyes. "Body language. You were tenser than Trigger at a dance."

They sat in silence for a minute while Tahiri tried to gather the words to explain how Yavin IV was responsible for both the best years of her life, and the worst week short of when Anakin was lost. She ended up pointing to the scars on her forehead.

"The Yuuzhan Vong did this on Yavin IV," she said. "They assaulted the Jedi Academy, kidnapped me, and tried brainwashing me into one of their own. They wanted to make a Jedi Yuuzhan Vong."

"How did you escape?"

"I don't know if I ever did," Tahiri replied silently, half to herself more than her commander. Her eyes were locked on the hyperspace tunnel, intently avoiding contact with Lanos's stare. "Riina is with me every day – the personality they imprinted me with. Anakin broke me out of their captivity with the help of a Shamed One, but they almost turned me. They almost destroyed me."

"Yavin IV is behind us," Lanos said remorselessly. "Leave it there."

"It isn't..."

"Do I look like I care?" Lanos kicked her chair so she swiveled to face him. "I'm not going into battle with an emotional child. Get over it."

A cold stare filled the silence between the Mandalorian and Jedi before Tahiri finally looked away.

"You're right," Tahiri said. "The future is all we have left."

* * *

The twins were led to the detention area of the ship and were shoved unceremoniously into their own jail cells. Jaina barely caught her feet under her to prevent a face plant into the cold durasteel floor but was unable to turn around fast enough to try getting back to the door.

"You could at least deactivate my stun cuffs!" Jaina called out. She looked around her cell and found a bed and refresher but nothing else. She sat on the bed and waited.

About an hour later the door opened and a dark robed figure entered the cell.

"Nelani?"

Her stun cuffs popped off, but she was too surprised to do anything except take her hands out of the cuffs.

"Hi Jaina," her old apprentice said. Her voice was anything but warm and her green eyes were like ice. "Lowie told us you were sneaking around in the lower ranks. We can't have that. Did Master Skywalker send you?"

"What are you doing with the Vornskrs?" Jaina asked. "You and Lowie have thrown in with pirates? _This_ is where you ended up after you became a Jedi Knight?"

"You really don't get it, do you?" Nelani asked. She was genuinely surprised by her former Master's ignorance, which surprised Jaina in turn. She held her left hand out to show off a sapphire ring. A touch of the Force projected the Black Vornskr logo.

"Lowie had a sapphire bracelet," Jaina said.

"Yeah, we couldn't find a ring that he was comfortable wearing." Nelani laughed, breaking her grim demeanor for a moment. "That's how we knew you were sneaking around."

"Because I wasn't wearing a blue ring."

"Exactly," Nelani said. "Eriana's on her way here now to figure out what to do with you. I'm sorry, Jaina, but we have to keep you locked up. We can't trust that you won't reveal everything we've built to Master Skywalker before we're ready."

Nelani left Jaina with more questions than she had answered, but at least she was getting closer to Eriana.

* * *

Jacen, in contrast to his sister worrying about the situation they were in, was quite happy to be locked in a jail cell. Firstly, he was away from Lana. That woman was reason enough for him to want to be back in the Embrace of Pain playing mind games with Vergere. Secondly, he had some quiet moments to touch the Force again. The first thing he did after releasing his cuffs was reach out to Tenel Ka across the vast distance of space and assure her that he was safe and well. She responded in turn telling him she did not have the baby yet, and everything was well on her end. Satisfied with her situation, he reached out and expanded his presence as far and wide as he could, taking in as much of the galaxy around him simply for the sake of _feeling_ the connections between the life around him that he had missed out on for so long. Before he could start moving things around the jail cell to practice his telekinesis, the door opened and a man with neatly trimmed short grey hair and goatee to match his stylish platinum uniform and ring entered.

"Well, Master Jedi, your infiltration appears to be quite short lived," the man said in a Coruscanti accent. "What do you have to say for yourself?"

"I want to see Eriana."

"I'm afraid I have no idea who that is," the man lied. "But I have been assigned to deal with you. I am General Cooper. My orders are clear. If I cannot convince you to the wisdom of joining our cause, I am to expose your worthless hide to vacuum and enjoy the sight of watching your head explode."

"I don't think your orders are very well understood," Jacen said dangerously. He used an Aing-Tii teleportation technique to pull the Corusca ring from his boot into his left hand and slipped the ring onto his right ring finger. A touch of the Force made the Black Vornskr logo appear, and General Cooper's eyes almost popped out of his skull at the sight of it.

"I want to see Eriana. Now."

* * *

A/N: I originally had Zekk as the person who visited Jaina in the cell. Then I realized I killed him in another story. Whoops (o:


	10. Revelations

JDR – He was just recovering from whacking his head against Womprat...you bash your head against a solid chunk of metal and see how well you recover ;) Jacen reaching out with the Force basically wipes the slate clean...it hides any possible evidence of his time travel injury because now there's nothing there. He's back to his old Force-loving self...he can claim he just wanted to not use it for a bit and they can't prove otherwise. WRT General Cooper...it was more of him trying to talk down to Jacen...make him feel like he was inferior like the guy did in Shatterpoint to Mace Windu.

Onimi – Nope, studied business and way too much stargate ) Thanks.

Lelouch – going back to what I wrote for JDR above, Cooper was trying to put him down to bully him into joining. Jacen didn't like that considering he doesn't want to be there and really wants to go home and be with TK. He can either dance around one more roadblock, or cut through it by pulling rank and at this point his frustrations are coming out. It is much easier to pull rank, especially if Jaina's not around to question how he got a Vornskr ring.

* * *

The delicious smell of caf brought a rare smile to Squeak's face as he spun around his chair to accept the steaming mug from Tahiri. He took a moment to breathe in the mildly nutty smell of the black liquid saturated with the essence of ground, roasted beans and smiled before taking a sip of it, nearly burning his tongue and splashing himself with the caf in the process.

"It's hot," Tahiri said. "Be careful."

"Could've told me that three seconds ago," Squeak said. He put the mug on the desk beside his computer terminal and looked back at Tahiri. "Any luck?"

"Nothing," Tahiri said. She had spent hours searching through news reports with Parmis and Blade while Lanos and Trigger searched through police incident reports. So far there had been no sign of their quarry on Coruscant. "You?"

"I think I know how we can focus our efforts," Squeak said and turned back toward his computer. He activated the three-dimensional display in the centre of the room, grabbed the tablet interface, and gestured for her to join him at the rotating model of Coruscant.

"As you know, the planners of Coruscant have compartmentalized most of the redevelopment of the planet-city."

"Something about efficiency and aesthetics, if I remember correctly."

"Yes," Squeak said. He tapped the tablet and the model zoomed in to display a section of Coruscant in the South Eastern hemisphere. "Take this area for example. This is largely an industrial zone, pushed far away from the political, tourism, and more prestigious residential sections of the planet. This actually works to our benefit."

"How so?"

"Security is lax here." Squeak smiled. "Anyone can slip through claiming to be a cargo ship going to pick up a shipment from any of a thousand warehouses. Credentials are easy to forge, if they're even examined."

"So we have an entry plan? That doesn't help us..."

"Hang on."

Squeak played with the tablet and the map shifted slightly north. A section of approximately twenty city blocks began glowing red against the blue backdrop.

"This is the largest consumer technology development area in the galaxy," Squeak said. "This is where almost every new comm device, computer, droid, or anything you can think of is developed. It is also the heart of some of the largest software firms, including four major data mining companies. Two of which have contracts with the government, and all four work with the media. The best part is that this..."

He hit another button and the area around it turned yellow.

"...is where the vast majority of these developers live."

"So you think Sekava will try accessing these specialists to help him with his data search."

"It's where I would go if I needed access to the best of the best," Squeak admitted. "Well, Talon Karrde's people, aside, obviously.

"They're close to the industrial zone, they've got all the talent and skill to find anyone famous almost as quickly as the government could, if not faster, and there are only two small space ports. It wouldn't take us long to search them."

"Good work," Tahiri said. "I'll have Parmis take us down. Can you forge documentation?"

"Done." Squeak pulled data card from his pocket and tossed it to her. "This should get us through any security checks as long as they don't dig into the manufacturer database. I've been working on this ship ID for months, slipping docking references into spaceport databases across the galaxy. It should stand up fairly well."

"You're pretty good at all this," Tahiri said with a rare genuine smile. "I'm glad we have you here."

"Thanks." Squeak blushed and turned back to his computer. "I'll start cracking into the local traffic databases and see if I can find them."

! #$%^&*()

By pulling rank with the Corusca ring, Jacen effectively took command of the entire taskforce. He left General Cooper in command of fleet functions and spent the majority of the next day locked in the General's office poring over various files. Nelani, the only Vornskr aboard with a sapphire ring, reported to Jacen immediately after she was aware that Jacen was in command. They decided it was best to leave Jaina locked up, however, they did provide a more comfortable cell. Jacen even arranged for Womprat to be delivered to her for repair after extracting the droid from the ceiling of the _Solo Quest_ so she would have something to do to pass the time.

Jacen remained tight-lipped about his involvement with the Vornskrs and, to not ruffle any feathers, did not ask any questions in turn. He already knew as much as he wanted to know about the Vornskrs and he really only wanted to see Eriana so he could figure out a way of going home sooner than later.

In addition to providing a means of identification, the Corusca ring was cut in such a way that it provided a unique pattern of light diffusion that could be used as a pass code into the central computer system. Jacen used the ring in the specialized reader on the General's desk and was able to access all of Eriana's data on the Vornskrs in the main databank. What surprised him was that the ring also contained data – and lots of it. Leaving the information in the ship databank alone, Jacen spent hours scouring the information contained on the ring and found a highly detailed history of the next hundred years of Vornskr activity from the alternate timeline. While reading a report about the mission where Eriana and Kyp had bonded, the door to the office opened.

"You wanted to see me, Master Solo?"

Jacen pulled the ring out of the reader and slipped it back on before getting up. At the door was a tall woman with long blond hair pulled back into a pony tail. She wore a fitted leather jacket zipped open to show a plain white top underneath. A pair of lightsaber handles protruded from holsters that hugged her black pants where any other pirate might keep blasters.

"What's this I hear about you starting a pirate organization without me?" Jacen asked.

Eriana's face broke into a grin. The two friends closed the distance between each other and hugged fiercely. Eriana broke the hug and grabbed Jacen by his upper arms.

"What's this I hear that you've kept your sister locked up for almost two days now?"

"She needed to cool down. Besides, we have a lot to discuss that would go over better without her around."

Eriana grabbed his right hand with hers and pulled it up to her face. The two identical rings shone brightly in the white light of the office.

"Something tells me that your story is a lot more surprising than mine."

Jacen shook his head and pulled her toward the couch.

"You don't know the half of it. I guarantee you, this will sound crazy."

"I like crazy."

"I've been to the future." Jacen said, plopping onto the couch. Whatever Eriana had expected, the look on her face suggested that was not it. She slowly sat down while watching his face for any deception, but found nothing but his big goofy grin of success. "You, Womprat and Tenel Ka are the only ones who know about it. I was gone for three hours and in that time I was in the future for months. It was a horrible future. The Sith Lords ruled almost the entire galaxy, and the only areas they didn't control were those under the protection of the Black Vornskrs. I met you in the future and you gave me this ring just before you died – of old age, might I add. I fought and killed the leader of the Sith, a Bothan named Masakra, and spent a while on Zonoma Sekot healing from an injury related to time travel. Time travel using the Force is dangerous. It damages the brain in a way that makes using the Force a potentially fatal experience."

"I could sense you reaching out in the Force earlier..."

"I'm healed now." Jacen pulled a pocket scanner from his pocket. "I've been keeping an eye on it to make sure I haven't caused any more damage, but everything seems stable. Though I do need to train up. A year without the Force has left me a little rough around the edges."

"We can work on that after mid-day meal," Eriana promised. "Forget about the Vornskrs for a minute, what the hell are you doing here? Tenel Ka is expecting! You should be at home with her."

"You are well informed," Jacen said approvingly. "Uncle Luke found out you're running the show. He doesn't seem to know about Lowie and the others you've recruited, but he's convinced that you're trying to pirate your way into making a new dark empire and take over the universe. Jaina's here to shut you down."  
"And she dragged you along to talk some sense into me."

"Given the fact that I've been to the future, I think I know about your motivations enough to vouch for you, but to explain that without giving away my secret would be impossible. I tried to explain it without telling her, but she thinks my trust is misplaced."

"She's as stubborn as you," Eriana supplied. "Keep the ring. I've been thinking of a second in command, and now that you're here it makes sense."

"I'm going back to Hapes." Jacen shook his head. "Eriana, before you protest, I really don't want to miss my baby's birth. I see the value of what you're doing here, and you know I trust you, but I really do need to go back to Hapes. Uncle Luke and Jaina twisted my arm so hard I couldn't say no. Jaina came after me with my brother's lightsaber telling me it's what he would do."

Jacen held up his Anakin's lightsaber, tears starting to form in his pain-filled eyes again.

Eriana sighed, torn between his emotions and her own needs. She got up and walked over to the viewport overlooking the half of the fleet on that side of the Star Destroyer. When she turned to face Jacen, she looked more concerned than he had ever seen her.

"I planted information that I knew would get the Jedi to send someone high up to see me," she said. "The Jedi don't have operatives in my organization – I have Jedi who are _my_ operatives. Nelani and Doran Tainer have been feeding the Jedi information on me. I've found and recruited every Jedi they've sent into my ranks and together we give back enough information to keep the Council happy while furthering our goals. I was hoping Luke himself would come, not you. I didn't think he would be stupid enough to send you with Tenel Ka so close to being due, but I have to admit I'm glad to see you. I _really_ need your help, Jacen. It can't wait and it is vitally important. I've been trying to get one of you two out here for months, but...well, your injury explains why I wasn't able to reach you, which is why I had to reveal to Luke that I was running the show here. Soora is after something. A..."

"A Sith talisman," Jacen finished. "Masakra stole it from him in the future to extend his life. I haven't been able to track it down yet. I have a picture of it but not a location."

Eriana smiled.

"I should've known you'd be half a step ahead of me."  
"It isn't that," Jacen said. He handed her an insulated data chip storage box that he extracted from his pocket. "This chip contains a good chunk of data about the future. About _the_ future I visited. Some of it applies, but my return to the present has already started to change things. I stole most of this from the Sith database on Coruscant. I also have Masakra's personal diary on my ship, but none of it has led me to the location of the talisman."

"If that really is my ring, then the answer is much closer than you thought," Eriana grinned. She plucked her own ring from her hand and dropped it into the computer terminal's data reader. After a few moments she accessed the files within. Jacen noticed that there were only a fraction of the files that were on his ring.

"Here," Eriana said, finally displaying the planet.

"Charnack? I've never heard of it."

"It is just on the edge of the Unknown Regions. Very mountainous, harsh climates. No indigenous sentient species, but a lot of nasty non-sentient ones. Apparently there is a cruise line that passes by there to show off the planetary ring before looping back to the core planets. Karrde was able to find out some details on it for me and he sent out a scout. We think we have a good idea of the location of the talisman. Karrde's people found a temple buried in a mountain range, but we called them off for their safety."

"Karrde is in your club, too?"

"Sapphire ring member." Eriana smiled. She pulled up a list of names from her ring database and let him read it.

"Karrde, Bror Jace, Corran and Mirax Horn, Booster Terrik, Valin, Jysella, Doran Tainer, Kyle _Katarn_, _Wedge Antillies_, _and_ _Aunt Mara_? By the Force, you have a third of our senators on here!"

"If you keep going you'll see a lot more names you recognize, including your cousin Ben." Eriana extracted her ring and replaced it on her finger. "It really shows you how strongly some people believe in what we're doing."

"I knew you were building influence, but I didn't realize how much you gathered already," Jacen admitted. "How long for this mission?"

"A week, tops." Eriana shrugged. "Soora's already after it himself. I figure you, Jaina and myself ought to be able to beat him to it, or beat him into giving it to us before he figures out how to use it."

"Speaking of Jaina, we should probably let her out."

Eriana sent a brief message to Nelani from the desk while Jacen retreated to the couch. She joined him a minute later and tossed a package onto the couch beside him.

"A late life-day present," Eriana said as he tore into the package. "They're all the rage on Corellia right now."

Jacen held up the black shirt and laughed at the words scrawled across it. Without hesitation he put it on over his other shirt.

"Don't let it get to your head," Eriana scolded, but Jacen just threw the wrapper at her and laughed again.

"Thanks," Jacen said. "Jaina's going to have kittens when she sees it."

"How did you get as far into the Vornskrs as you did?" Eriana asked, returning to matters of importance. "None of the flags I had set up were triggered until Lowie caught Jaina."

"We've only been in for a week," Jacen said. "You might want to evaluate your training program for outliers in performance. We impressed Stragoron enough to give us a trial and he let us in but, admittedly, we were too good."

"And you thought you'd scale your way up through the ranks with your wit, charm, and skills?"

"No, that was Jaina's plan. I tried flunking so I could go home and leave you alone. Who knew simply surviving was enough to pass?"

"Jacen Solo failed at something. Wow. I am shocked."

"I tried. I really did."

"How do you want to play this? That you've always been on the inside or that I made you number two?"

"Recent addition. I still don't want her to know I visited the future. I can't risk Uncle Luke or any other Jedi asking what will happen next and them making bad decisions on information from a timeline that has already changed. It's probably best that we start ignoring events in the other timeline completely."

"Good call."

Any further conversation was interrupted by the doors opening long enough for Jaina to enter. Jacen could sense Nelani reaching out to try to figure out what was going on, but he did the mental equivalent of a light push to get Nelani's presence out of the room.

"I thought you were trying to _not_ get into bed with the enemy," Jaina sneered at the sight of her brother sitting beside the target of her mission.

"For the record, we've never slept together," Jacen started. "And you couldn't have been more wrong about the Vornskrs. I told you that you could trust me."

He pointed at the words "Trust me, I'm a Jedi Master" written in yellow across the front of his new shirt and Jaina merely glared at him with her jaw clenched.

"Please sit down, Jaina." Eriana gestured to an arm chair adjacent to their couch. "Your uncle isn't aware about some things and I think it might be time for you to fill him in on the secret."

"The only thing I'm here to do is haul your ass back to the Jedi Council to explain yourself."

"A quarter of the Jedi Council members are Vornskrs," Jacen said. "Hell, a third of the _government_ is. There's a lot more to this organization than piracy. What you glimpsed on Kashyyyk was the back half that is run by Jedi and Jedi sympathizers that Eriana has recruited."

"What?" Jaina asked with a mixture of shock and disgust.

"We steal from the Sith and supply Jedi planets," Eriana explained. "The piracy is a front. A collection agency, if you will. The Black Vornskrs were a pirate group that were named to scare the Jedi, but I've turned it into an organization that fights for the Jedi without even realizing it. We do stage hitting the odd Jedi Coalition target to make things look less obvious, but they are completely staged. Usually those are cargo transfers when Wedge needs something moved to a planet discretely. Our goal is to minimize collateral damage while pulling out as many resources and goods from under the Sith noses as possible to funnel into our side through Karrde's organization. Yes, _the_ Talon Karrde. As you saw, the pirates never see the goods, but they're well-cared for and are part of a profit-sharing scheme. For the most part they don't ask questions because we keep them too happy to want to ask questions. Anyone above a copper ring knows that this is more than just piracy, and the higher up you go the more they know. The generals know exactly who I am and what my plans are, but to others I'm just a vicious tyrant that makes them credits if they don't get in my way."

"Those with blue rings are Eriana's inner circle operating in the background," Jacen explained. "They're the link between the front and the back end, and they also do whatever is needed to keep things going. Intel, special ops, you name it. Most of those efforts go into 'selling' material to Karrde so he can turn around and sell it to where it needs to go."

"Karrde really signed up as a Vornskr?"

"It's a retirement project for him. Mara Jade also joined at his request."

Jaina's eyes widened in disbelief, but her brother's quick nod told her the truth.

"You're telling me Uncle Luke sent me to uncover the truth about an organization that his wife is a secret member of?"

"Yep."

"And he has no clue?"

"Nope."

"I don't believe you."

"You're going to doubt the former Emperor's Hand's ability to keep a secret?" Eriana interjected.

Jaina's silence provided Eriana the opportunity to push on.

"We aren't here to cause problems for the Jedi," she said. "We're here to help. Everything the Vornskrs do is to help the Jedi. We have no desire to cause any harm to anyone unless we have to."

"Like the freighter that your command ship destroyed three weeks ago?"

"That was an unfortunate accident..."  
"That was _murder_."

"It _isn't_ murder when the _idiot_ captain decides to overload his own reactor!" Eriana shouted. "We tried to _disable_ his ship before the reactor went critical but he dumped all his power into shields. We told him no harm would come to him, but he decided to take his own life before listening to us. Do you have any idea how much bacta was on that transport? We could've saved tens of thousands of lives on Bortras if that greedy bastard didn't decide to go down with his ship.

"I realize that sometimes we push the envelope too far, but sometimes mistakes are made. We need to keep up our cover story so the Sith don't believe we're pushovers. We've been carefully covering our tracks and working our asses off to make sure nobody knows what we're really trying to accomplish. I'm sorry if the Jedi Council can't see past the curtain we've created, but that's the _point_ of having a curtain to hide behind. There are a lot of Jedi who have joined us who can see what it is we're doing and they agree with us through their own free will. Any Jedi who needs help can hide within our ranks. We are a perfect cover for running Jedi operations, and every Jedi among us knows it. And I could really use someone with your skills."

"What?"

"I want you to join the team," Eriana said. She held out a blue sapphire ring. "And if you can convince Luke of our importance, even better. I'd be glad to have him, too."

"I don't trust you. It sounds like you're trying to run the galaxy. And take over the Jedi."

Eriana closed her hand on the ring and shook her head.

"I don't _command_ the sapphire rings. I work _with_ them. My part is running the Vornskrs. Their part is making it worth doing. Without the Jedi, the Black Vornskrs are meaningless."

"Jaina, we have a mission," Jacen interrupted. "Eriana and I are going after something that Soora is after. We can't let him get his hands on it. You can come along, but we have to leave very soon."

"I'm taking Eriana in," Jaina said. "She can explain this to the Jedi Council. I'm not letting her out of my sight until she's in front of Master Skywalker."

"Good, then you're coming with us," Eriana said. "If that's your prerogative, and unless you've learned a lot about a lightsaber since we last met, I don't think you'll have any other choice."

! #$%^&*)

Jacen entered the designated deserted hanger bay and found a large cube of stacked crates sitting in the middle of the room. He could sense Eriana's presence inside the crates and found a narrow path on one side of the cube. As he entered the giant cube of crates through a narrow path he noticed that a ceiling of crates had been created, likely by fusing the empties together to make it appear that there was nothing interesting within to outside observers. Inside, Eriana was running through an intense training pattern on a large sparring mat using an interesting combination of switching between one and both lightsabers.

"New pattern?" Jacen asked when she stopped.

"Yeah, I'll teach it to you some other time. New toys?"

Jacen pulled the satchel from his shoulder and dropped it on the floor.

"Something fun for later."

"The usual routine then?"

"Just be careful. I haven't used one of these properly in a while."

Drawing on what they learned from the Jedi Masters of old, Jacen and Eriana delved into the depths of Shii-Cho, Makashi, Soresu, Ataru, Shien, and Djem So. After hours of drilling through the forms and reminding Jacen's muscle memory of how to fight, they finally launched into Vaapad. Their strikes, slashes and parries hummed and clashed in rapid succession as Jacen rekindled his connection to the Force and found his centre within. After catching Eriana off guard and disarming her, Jacen surprised her further by producing a couple of lightfoils from the mysterious satchel.

"In the future the Sith had minions that they trained in using these," Jacen explained. "They heavily rely on Makashi to use them properly. I was one of the few to make anything of it. Most of them used it like a club."

"Let's play," Eriana said and took the intriguing lightfoil. This time Jacen taught her the basics of using the lightfoil and found himself both annoyed and proud when she quickly surpassed him. Once they were both comfortable, they took turns attacking the lightfoil wielder with a lightsaber, then paired it up to two lightsabers against a single foil to assess the viability of using lightfoils instead of lightsabers. They came to the consensus that they would provide a measure of surprise, but not much else. The elegant lightfoil style was of little use against the more forceful lightsaber styles favoured by the present day Sith Lords.

After their tests with the lightfoil, Jacen used the portable brain scanner to ensure that his injury was stable, which it was. They proceeded to perform various Force exercises including fine telekinesis, manipulating energy, and mental intrusion exercises. They also spent a couple hours working on many other techniques that Jacen had picked up, including making himself small and modifying the molecular structure of matter. Jacen still felt behind on his game, but after their sixteen hour refresher course, he definitely felt better about facing Soora.

"Okay, spill it. What did you learn?" Eriana asked after they had decided to call it quits for the day.

"I told you much of what I already know," Jacen said. "I could put together a more extensive report if you'd like."

"That's not what I meant." Eriana eyed him suspiciously. "The future you saw was obviously horrible enough for you to come back, but you spent over thirteen months without using the Force. I followed you all over the galaxy searching for hundreds of new ideas of how to do the craziest things we could think of and more. You looked everywhere and found things in places nobody would have ever guessed. Based on the fact that you disarmed _me_ after a year of not fighting with the Force, I can tell you found something."

Jacen could not help but grin. From the glint in his eye, Eriana knew he stumbled onto something big.

"Jedi have always seen the Force as something to study and that to grow deeper within the Force one must keep studying it and spend more and more time in its presence."

"You're telling me it's the opposite?"

"I don't know for sure," Jacen admitted. "But I feel more in tune with the Force than I ever have. By not using it, it has slowly reconnected me with everything at a more subconscious level. I think I've learned how to accept the will of the Force more readily opposed to being more of a wielder of the Force."

"It shows," Eriana said. "Your technique is still rustier than that bucket of bolts your dad flies, but your intuition is better than it's ever been."

"Thanks," Jacen said. "I think."

"I have a few things to arrange before we can depart tomorrow." Eriana paused, checking her wrist chrono. "Where did you send Jaina and Nelani?"

"Nar Shadda," Jacen said. "Womprat said he had some stuff there he wanted to pick up. They should be back shortly. I had to twist her arm into going. She thought we would've left without her, but I convinced her I wasn't going to leave Womprat behind on a mission to hunt a Sith Lord."

"She still thinks I'm a Sith Lord in training, doesn't she?" Eriana asked with a shake of her head. "Let's hope they get back soon. Our transport leaves in ten hours."

! #$%^&*()

"Here." Squeak jabbed his finger on an aerial survey map of the section of Coruscant they were investigating.

"That's a spaceport," Parmis said, correctly identifying the structure Squeak had indicated. "Wait a minute..."

"That's where we are," Blade said.

"Brilliant job, Squeaky," Trigger grunted. "We're not looking for us. We found us. We want find them. Them not here."

Momentarily slack-jawed from Trigger's simplistic grammar, Squeak shook his head and pointed back at the spaceport.

"Correct," Squeak said. "And this is where they _were_."

"Explain," Tahiri demanded.

"I was able to find them and track them on the regional traffic database, being the awesome slicer I am. Using the time codes on the store videos and correlating it to traffic movements I've learned that they've been meeting with a programmer working at the search giant..."

"Cut to the chase," Lanos demanded.

Squeak looked somewhere between excited and terrified, but grinned broadly just the same.

"They transferred to the other spaceport in the tech district three hours before we arrived," Squeak finally said. "We should probably transfer, too."


	11. Startling discoveries

Onimi – One? Pfft.

Sioux – If you consider that maybe 200 very strategically placed people are fully aware of the inner workings of what Eriana is doing and another 1000 or so have a very good clue of what is going on...it isn't all that inconceivable that they can keep it a well guarded secret. We're obviously seeing more because we have Jacen's insight into the Vornskrs...more than even what Jaina sees. Everyone who is "in" knows the value of the secret they hold and they are handpicked because they can keep it. Thanks, re: Eriana. I adore writing her J Jacen will reveal his story as he deems it appropriate so he doesn't influence the current timeline with bad information, if he deems it necessary. He's scared about the impact time travel had on him and the implications of bad information being shared, so he's keeping it a secret from everyone that he has no need to tell. Everyone who knows knows because he's had a reason to tell them – Tenel Ka because she found him unconscious bleeding in a new robe in their bedroom and there's no way he could hide his injury from his Force-sensitive wife. HK-47 because he needed a droid he could trust to process through some of the data he received in that time and he can order the droid to behave. Eriana because he has a ring with her personality imprinted on it and he was forced into the situation to meet her. If Jaina finds out, it will be for good reason.

* * *

Jacen collapsed on his bed and hoped beyond hope that the day did not get any worse. Eriana's idea to take a cruise liner to the Charnack system to disguise their approach as an act of tourism was brilliant right up to the time when he was identified by a local news reporter as the Prince of Hapes. Eriana and Jaina were able to escape the spotlight, but he had to explain away why he was on this particular cruise ship, and why Tenel Ka was not with him. He made a story up on the spot about how he had wanted to see the Charnack ring since he was fourteen and that the queen was attending some diplomatic events on Hapes that did not require his presence, so he figured he would slip away to see it. The reporter seemed to buy it, but Jacen still felt like he damaged the mission beyond repair.

Eriana did not seem too concerned about him being identified since she knew Soora was already on his way to find the talisman and was unlikely to receive any reports about Jacen's movements. The planetary ring prevented subspace communication – which is largely why there were no settlements on Charnack – and she had assets in location jamming any communication in or out of the sector to be safe. Her assurances still had little effect on the sense of growing dread that Jacen felt.

He eventually rolled off the bed and walked out of his room into the common area that joined each of their rooms. With the ship's captain being a Black Vornskr, Eriana had easily secured them a suite truly fit for royalty to maintain their privacy. While cruise ships had been characterized by tiny rooms designed to cram as many people in as possible and force them to enjoy the services of the ship outside their room, Jacen's room had a bed big enough for a Bantha to stretch out on and a refresher suite that lacked only a servant droid. His bedroom opened to the large well-furnished room with five doors surrounded by a unique door frame of artistically shaped gold designed to look like golden water frozen in time. Four of the doors led to similarly lavish bedrooms, and the fifth door, the one with the most elaborate doorframe, led to the hallway. Each occupant, Jacen, Jaina, Eriana, and Womprat, had their own room for privacy and comfort. The central room was round and spacious with a silver-plated bar on one side, a small sitting area with ridiculously comfortable plush chairs, a dining area, an entertainment suite, and, right in the middle of the room, a crystal fountain bubbling gold-coloured water so loudly that it did nothing for the atmosphere except make Jacen want to run to the refresher.

"Nice fountain, eh?" Jaina said, emerging from her own bedroom. She was wearing a fluffy white robe with matching slippers and a towel wrapped around her wet hair. She ordered a Corellian brandy from the droid server at the bar and joined him beside the fountain. "I was thinking of getting one for my office. Smaller scale, of course."

"I was thinking of getting Womprat to blow the hell out of it," Jacen replied. "Large scale explosion, of course."

"You don't have a single artistic bone in your body, do you?"

"No explosions on this ship." Eriana appeared from her room with Womprat carrying a stack of datapads. She handed one to each of them, which Jaina snatched as quickly as she could. "We've already attracted enough attention with Prince Jacen."

"Not my fault I'm beautiful," Jacen muttered.

"Shut it, or I'm calling you 'Princess' for the rest of the trip," Eriana commanded. "Here is the plan – memorize it, destroy it, and definitely don't lose it. Jacen, until we depart the ship, Womprat will be your servant droid."

"Forlorn remark: What a _domestic_ use for such a wonderful droid," Womprat said. "Why can I not be a bodyguard? That role would be much more fun and fit within the Master's role of being royalty."

"Just because you have a new body it doesn't mean you're wonderful," Eriana shot back. Womprat's new body – or old, according to him – was a rusty red bi-pedal droid with a remarkable ability to conceal weaponry and cause mayhem. He was still discovering rocket launchers, integrated blasters and scopes, propulsion systems, and a variety of other features that would make life as an assassin droid much easier than living in an astromech shell. Nobody really seemed to know how the astromech droid knew about this upgrade, but it was exactly where he said it would be in a secret facility deep in Nar Shadda's underworld. "All it means is that you're a taller pain-in-the..."

"As nice as this room is," Jacen interrupted. "I was thinking we could take a walk. I'd like to see some of the facilities and enjoy this cruise. It isn't too often we get down time together. Who's up for some hoverball?"

"And get our faces associated with Princess Jacen?" Jaina smirked. "I think I'd rather breathe some vacuum."

"You're not exactly unknown yourself, you know," Jacen shot back. "We're expected to be seen now, and hiding will only arouse suspicion. Nobody will talk to us anyway. We're too famous or we're rebellious crazy Jedi that betrayed the Republic. You coming?"

"Yeah, let me get dressed first. Someone has to keep an eye on you two."

! #^&)(*&)(*

A profound new paradigm entered Sekava's realm of consideration in the days since he had interacted with the blue crystal on Yavin 4. Masakra had shared his vision with him, but it was radically different from his own. He spent days focused on the implications of every last detail, more focused than he had been since that fateful day years ago when a man with a red lightsaber found him wandering around on Nar Shadda and told him that a special destiny awaited him.

In Sekava's vision, he was the Dragon. Feral and powerful, flying high above the clouds and swooping down to terrorise the pitiful sentient beings far beneath him. No one who was stupid enough to challenge him lived. The Dragon ruled with teeth, claws and fire, mowing down anyone who stood in his way. The more he embraced his feral instincts, the more his power and size grew. The implications of this were obvious - the secret to great power comes from releasing the Dragon within.

Every day Sekava tested his powers, pushing his rage to new lengths to find tap the potential within. Masakra no longer had any chance against Sekava, if the rampage he went on through a seedy basement bar that left him completely unscarred was any indication. Sekava smiled at the memory. That fight had been a true testament to his power. Twice he found Sith Lords wandering the streets of Coruscant to pick off and test himself against, but they fell to his might. While he smiled at the thought of killing some well-armed smugglers, he laughed at his effortless slaughter of his former classmates from Ossus.

After the vision showed him his path to enlightenment, the narrative changed dramatically. As The Dragon, he flew toward a giant crystal in the sky seeking more of everything than he controlled. As the crystal grew, it, well, looked like Coruscant. That, Sekava had identified easily enough. After arriving there he learned of a great warrior in a distant land who had defeated great dragons before. Setting out, he found the warrior clad in brilliant white armour and wielding a sword made from a gleaming green shard of glass. They engaged in a fierce battle, neither side holding back. The black fire he spewed at the warrior did not even discolour the white armour, and every blow with claws, teeth, and tail met the furious slash of the green sword. A lucky blow from his tail knocked the helmet off the warrior, revealing the unmistakeable face of Jacen Solo. The blow staggered him long enough for The Dragon to snap his head off with one clean bite.

The Dragon returned to the giant crystal in the sky and he soon had other dragons following him, smaller dragons embracing his lead and feeding off his glory. They grew in number to populate the skies and spread out, bringing every land to fall under their relentless rule.

Sekava awoke from his meditations, stood up and left his chamber. He had no idea how much time had passed since he had started meditating, but it was long enough to leave his muscles feeling stiff and his stomach empty.

Masakra was nowhere to be found on the ship, so Sekava took an energy bar from the pantry and set out to find his charge. He wandered through the streets of the tech district of Coruscant looking for his Bothan companion, barely paying attention to the thoughtless simpletons wandering about their lives. Since Sekava had been opening himself to the Force and training with the young Bothan, tracking Masakra had become almost too easy. Like a vornskr seeking prey, he followed the young Bothan's scent through the Force and soon recognized the path to the data centre they had been accessing for the last week. The assistance of a gullible young slicer had proven quite beneficial in efforts to find their prey.

The mindless simpletons walking through the street amazed Sekava. Not one of them had a clue how insignificant they were, or how important The Dragon walking among them was. Having grown up in the underbelly of society, Sekava never associated with the business or educated class of sentients whose worries were far from the basic needs he often sought. While he would scrounge for every spare coin he could find to buy any meal or scrap of food, these people would worry about the model of speeder they drove or the age of their precious gadgets.

Being among them irked him. Their wealth and misplaced self-importance brought out The Dragon within. His anger brought his hatred into focus and he saw the clarity of his need. He spotted a man in an expensive suit talking on a communicator device several metres ahead, shouting into the device angrily. Without even considering the crowds walking through the streets, Sekava angled himself toward the man. Three steps later, he dropped his shoulder and ploughed it into the man's chest, knocking him back against the transparisteel window of the shop behind him.

"Hey!" he exclaimed. His mobile device had clattered to the ground and Sekava's boot crushed it easily. "You'll pay for that!"

Sekava grabbed the man by the throat and slammed him against the window again. People were screaming behind him and everyone was running away, but he ignored them.

"Keep the change," Sekava growled. A flick of his thumb activated the red stream of light that punched through the man's chest, making him convulse in pain while their eyes locked together. The man slowly slumped down to the ground, bisecting himself on the lightsaber as he fell, and Sekava finally tore his eyes away from the lifeless corpse at his feet. A flash of yellow behind the glass caught his attention and he looked closer to examine it.

It took him a second to realize that the yellow was not behind the window. It was _in_ the window. The yellow was the reflection of his eyes.

His yellow and acid green eyes. The eyes of a new breed of Sith Lord that will rule the galaxy.

The eyes of a Dragon.

"Master!"

The voice took Sekava's attention away from his eyes and he saw his apprentice running up to him.

"Put that away," Masakra said, pointing to the lightsaber. "You're attracting attention."

Sekava grunted and deactivated his lightsaber.

"What have you learned?"

Maskara grabbed his master's arm and pulled him away from the corpse, leading him back toward the ship. They slipped down an alley way where they ditched their overcoats and traveled up a side street parallel to the main road to reduce the chance of them being noticed.

"Solo is boarding a cruise ship going to the Charnack system. I downloaded the itinerary to my datapad."

"Cruise ships are well defended," Sekava said. He began using mind tricks to divert people's attention from them as they neared the berth where their ship was docked. "We will have to hit them the moment they drop out of hyperspace."

"Let's hope they follow the itinerary then," Masakra said. "I've already plotted a hyperspace route that should get us there before them. I'll upload it when we break atmosphere."

"Good work, my apprentice," Sekava said. "Did you give our helper his reward?"

"Of course," Masakra said, a feral grin reflecting the joy of stopping the young programmer's heart with the Force.

Sekava punched the access code into the security system on the docking bay and the door whined softly as the latch disengaged. He pulled the door open and grabbed his apprentice by the shoulder before he could enter the ship.

"Nothing will stop us now, Masakra," Sekava said, feeling the green glow of his eyes burn with intensity. "Nothing."

~! #$%^&*()

"_Nobody_ will talk to us?" Jaina demanded. Her brother was already cringing and she could tell he was suppressing the desire to run away screaming, but she could not help herself. "What is _wrong_ with you?"

"What's she talking about, Jenos?" The source of Jacen's cringe asked.

"Jenos?" Eriana snickered.

"Lana, look," Jacen said to the eccentric 5th Raider. He grabbed Eriana's hand before she could pull it away and gave her a telepathic kick to get her to play along. He held up their hands to show off the identical Corusca rings. "I'm married. Happily. We would never work out, you and I. I'm sorry."

"We could have a threesome!" Lana said, bouncing with a level of excitement that made Jacen wish beyond all wishes that time could go backward and they could have decided to go anywhere but the pool deck. Even out an airlock. Trying to find something to focus on so his revulsion did not reach his expression, he used the Force as discretely as he could to support the integrity of her swimwear as the woman bounced with anticipation.

"No," Eriana stiffly put an arm around Jacen, pretending to find the situation awkward while trying her best to break through the frosty attitude she had been getting from Jaina. "No, no, no. He's...uh...he's, he's all mine. All of him. Every tiny…teeny, tiny little bit. Like how every...uh...blossom on the Corellian syna trees are...pink and flowery like the...uh...tree bark that is stuck to the tree forever...we are stuck together."

Lana stared at Eriana with sad eyes that started to well up with tears. Jaina did her best to hold back tears of her own as she watched Jacen force himself to look at Eriana and smile. He planted a quick kiss on Eriana's cheek, pretending he was happy with her claim to him.

"That's _so_ beautiful," Lana whispered tearfully and ran off. Three paces away she slipped on a puddle of water, fell with a shriek on her rear, scrambled to her feet and continued running away as she sobbed.

Jaina finally burst out laughing and Eriana slapped Jacen on the back with a big grin in spite of the bright red colour of his cheeks. He finally became horribly aware that they were surrounded by onlookers staring at them both in the pool and around the deck. He used the Force to give them the idea of going back to what they were doing as quickly as possible.

"Thank you, but that wasn't exactly entertaining." Jacen sighed. "I feel sorry for her."

"Who was that?" Eriana finally asked. "She's like a mix between a rancor and a mynock."

"A life sucking beast with claws?" Jaina asked, seemingly fine with joking about her brother despite her distrust of Eriana.

"You know it."

Jacen glared at Eriana for a moment.

"She's part of the 5th Raiders under Stragoron's command," Jacen said coldly. "One of your employees. I think you just won the boss of the year award."

! #$%^&*()

Searching the other spaceport brought some small successes but no real victories for Team Awesome. They docked at what they later discovered to be the far side of the spaceport from the ship of the two Sith Lords. It did not take them long to find the berth of their prey, but they were at a loss of how to trap them. Obviously they would be difficult to kill, so Tahiri and Lanos decided to spend as much time tracking their movements and waiting for an opportunity to present itself.

The first opportunity occurred an hour after the Sith ship was discovered. Tahiri and Parmis were following Sekava and Masakra through a major shopping area, which left the ship wide open for incursion. Squeak, Parmis, and Trigger had snuck into the berth using the cloaking fields on their armour to plant cloaked remote-detonated explosives under the hull plating surrounding the engines, thrusters, cockpit and fuel tank, as well as several tracking devices.

The second opportunity was when they were able to slice into a computer terminal that Masakra had been using in the data centre to discover what he had been looking up – many variations of holonet searches regarding Jacen Solo. They realized they could set a trap for their prey by feeding false information into the holonet and began their preparations accordingly. It took most of the afternoon for Blade, Trigger, Squeak and Parmis to locate an inoperative Hapan gravity mine from a junk dealer, an extremely rare canister of collapsium gas from a very nervous Rodian behind a cantina, various jamming radios, a suite of video editing software, and a collection of archived news videos of the Solo family from the middle of the war.

Squeak had not slept in almost two days. Being the technical expert, it was his job to repair the Hapan gravity mine. And configure the jamming systems to bombard a single target with an overload of data. And go through the extensive video collection to make up a fake vacation of Jacen on Javris VII using footage from his excursions on Mon Calamari after his time in captivity. And stop Trigger from accidentally setting off the fuse on the baradium thermal detonators that he was using to turn the canister of collapsium into an improvised seismic charge. Everyone else took shifts keeping an eye on the Sith Lords or working with Squeak by doing the tasks that did not require his skilled hands.

"That should do it," Squeak finally said. He took a step back to look at his handiwork and sighed. "One fully operational Hapan gravity mine with four times the regular sphere of influence. And now you applaud."

Trigger dutifully clapped three times slowly and pointed to the hatch.

"Shouldn't that be closed?"

"Yes." Squeak sighed again. "Of course."

"Not done yet." Trigger grinned broadly. "So what do you think my chances are with the blonde?"

"Wha-? Are you talking about Tahiri?" Squeak barely glanced up from fixing the hatch into place. He thought back to the smile and compliments she gave him and was thankful that Trigger could not see him blush as he worked on the hatch. "I think you just discovered the first real use for negative probability."

"So, that's like, super-possible, right?"

"Yeah, that's it," Squeak said through thinly veiled sarcasm, finally composed enough to stand up. "So we have our mine, we have our charge, the jammer is set up, the video is ready..."

His attention was broken by the door to the cargo bay opening to admit Blade.

"The womprat-frakers are leaving. The plan changed. Secure everything for hyperspace back here – Lanos is getting us cleared for launch. Apparently Solo is on a cruise heading to the Unknown Regions."

She disappeared without another word and Squeak collapsed onto an overturned bucket with his head in his hands.

"Two days...two long days...for nothing..."

"C'mon kid." Trigger grabbed Squeak by the upper arm and yanked the smaller man to his feet. He grabbed some webbing and slapped the side of the gravity mine. "Let's strap this big boy down."

"That's what she said," Squeak muttered to himself before grabbing the cargo webbing and tossing it to his friend.

! #$%^&*()

To Jacen and Jaina's surprise, Lana was not the only member of the 5th Raiders that was on the cruise ship. After their standard ten week rotation, it was their turn for shore leave. Raggy, Lana, and Mala, whom Jacen and Jaina had only briefly met during their first and only mission, decided to take Rjon on a trip to see the Charnack system as he recovered from his injury. After Lana ran off in tears, the other three approached Jacen, Jaina and Eriana to 'correct' their misbehaviour. When they recognized the twins, Raggy's persistent laugh returned. Rjon invited them for some drinks at a pub on the main promenade, a boulevard down the middle of the ship complete with a cobblestone road, but Raggy disappeared to check on Lana.

The pub was a common place for many of the passengers. Many of the tables and decorations were made of real wood to give it an old, welcoming atmosphere. A traditional Corellian band played songs from their seafaring days at the threshold between the pub and the boulevard, so the group of Vornskrs found an unoccupied booth near the back for both privacy and the ability to converse without having to shout at each other. A human girl with a lovely Corellian accent, not a serving droid as they had expected, took their drink orders and disappeared.

"We thought ye'd been spaced," Rjon admitted. "Di'n' see hide nor hair of y'all after the mission."

"Stragoron had a mission for us," Jaina said, trying to think up an explanation to account for their disappearance. "Cargo run. After that we were tied up in a few things and when we heard about the shore leave, so we decided to take a few days and see the Charnack ring."

"Cap'n of this boat is one o' us," Rjon whispered. "Let 'em know and you get a ten percent discount."

Eriana rolled her eyes and shared a glance with Jacen. They shared an identical smirk of irritation, knowing exactly what the other was thinking.

"So tell me 'bout this pretty little lady ye got there, Jenos," Rjon said, leaning on the table and eyeing Eriana. "Is it serious?"

As one, the two of them held up their hands to display the Corusca rings, mostly because Jacen used the Force to wretch her arm into position and mirror his movement.

"Quite serious," Jacen said, hoping the topic would drop.

"What can I say?" Eriana interjected. Jacen recognized the smirk on her face – the irresistible desire to have some fun at his expense. "As soon as I saw him I had to buy him. You wouldn't _believe_ how cheap I was able to get him. Only five thousand."

Looks of surprise from the Raiders went back and forth between Jacen and Eriana, which kept eyes off Jaina as she worked hard to stop herself from bursting into laughter at the look of pure embarrassed befuddlement on her brother's face. He composed himself after a couple seconds when he realized he had to keep up the ruse.

"How could I say no to this face?" Jacen asked with a gesture. Eriana smiled and looked to the ceiling, trying to appear as cute as possible. "I almost would've married her for free."

"It was a beautiful ceremony, really." Jaina jumped in for some free shots at her brother. "Since she was the one who decided to buy the slave, oh, I did mention earlier that _he_ was the cargo I had to deliver, right?"

Rjon and Mala shook their heads with rapt attention, and Jaina continued as her brother's face went bright red again.

"Oh, well, according to the customs of Detebaz, where she is from, the slave always weds naked so that everyone may be jealous of the master's new catch."

"Unfortunately nobody was jealous." Eriana picked up the joke as Jacen buried his face in his hands. "Gifts are always given based on how good of a show it was, but we hardly got anything. At least you make up for it in other ways, don't ya, Honey?"

"This is the last time I go anywhere with both of you," Jacen groaned, shooing Eriana's hand away before she could pinch his cheek.

"It was your idea to invite me along," Jaina reminded him sharply.

The waitress chose that moment to return with their drinks. After Mala and Jaina received their drinks, Jacen took his ale from her and drained it. By the time Rjon and Eriana received their drinks, Jacen held his empty glass out to the waitress and asked for another.

"That's very brave of you," Mala said, trying to comfort Jacen. "I've never heard of Detebez or their customs, but not many men in this galaxy are willing to enter indentured servitude as the basis of a lifelong commitment."

"I really don't know what to say," Jacen said with perfect honesty. "But, thank you."

"Hardly a problem, izit, mate?" Rjon asked, tossing Eriana a wink. "Look at 'er! She's a ten at least. Fit as a Jedi, if I do say so meself."

For better or for worse, Raggy and Lana returned to interrupt any continued conversation about Jacen's supposed relationship with Eriana, and Jacen's second drink arrived. Lana had changed into a more appropriate outfit, though the shorts and top were still too revealing as far as Jacen was concerned. Her eyes were red, obviously from crying, but she smiled and apologized for her actions.

"I tried to tell you," Jacen said apologetically. "But I couldn't find the opportunity."

"I'll live," Lana said stiffly.

"I might not," Jacen muttered under his breath, glaring at Eriana and Jaina.

! #$%^&*()

After another hour of awkward conversation in the pub, the three Jedi returned to their suite to rest. HK-47 greeted them, crouched behind the fountain with a blaster rifle at the ready.

"Request: Identify yourselves, meatbags!"

Jacen glanced at the two women and replied.

"It's your master. These two meatbags have taken me hostage. You'd better keep them at blaster point and question their actions until morning. Might want to restrain them, too. I'm going to bed. Good night."

"Jacen!" Jaina exclaimed as he dashed out of her reach toward his bedroom. "You know he's going to do it, too!"

HK-47 advanced on them and produced a pair of stuncuffs from his chest cavity.

"When I make up a story about you getting sold to a slaver to be married naked, you can order your assassin droid to question me at gunpoint," Jacen said with a grin and disappeared into his bedroom. "Sweet dreams!"

"Query: Shall we start with the stun bolts or should I go straight to the thumb screws, meatbags?"

"Revan," Eriana said. Immediately Womprat froze.

"What was that?" Jaina asked.

"I don't know," Eriana said. "One time I commented about a raven on a busy street and he froze up. It took me a few tries to figure it out, but 'Revan' seems to trigger something in his programming. It throws him into a bit of a loop for about a minute before he recovers."

"I'll take what I can get," Jaina said, and disappeared into her bedroom.

"Oh, Womprat," Eriana said, looking into the ancient droid's red photoreceptors. "What a mystery you are."


	12. Back to work

Sioux – Reading that still cracks me up. Maybe my sense of humour is just really twisted, but I loved writing that. And going back and reading it.

* * *

After two days of enjoying the facilities of the cruise ship and avoiding the other Vornskrs as best as possible, the Jedi finally began their preparations for the pending mission. They slipped away to the shuttle hidden in a derelict hanger bay and prepared both the ship and their stowed gear for the upcoming departure. Jaina, still upset with Eriana and her brother, decided to check over the shuttle for flightworthiness with her nemesis HK-47 so that Jacen and Eriana would have to work together inside to ensure the packs were filled with enough food and supplies for a several day hike. They were not sure how close they could get to the location of the talisman, but they figured it would be best to play it safe and sneak up to it on foot.

"Why are there so many blasters in here?" Jacen asked, indicating the wall rack that displayed almost twenty rifles and pistols.

"It's an old shuttle from the Imperial era," Eriana explained. "I doubt half of them work. We found this tub parked on Tattooine under a sand dune in almost perfect condition. I think the commander couldn't find it because of the transient dunes and it was left behind. As far as I can tell, it was part of Vader's Fist at one time."

"You've been busy."

Eriana paused to look at him.

"I think I finally found my calling," she said. "It's a nice change from never knowing where I belong. How do those two packs look?"

"We should have about a week's worth of supplies each. More than enough, and nothing like that time on Tau Ceti."

"_Why_ do you keep bringing that up?"

"Sorry," Jacen muttered. "I have a spare armoured suit each, some extra clothes, glow rods, survival knives, sleeping rolls, rope, questionable blaster pistols, a copy of the map for everyone, two medical kits, a hygiene kit, and a few extra energy packs. I broke up the tent into both of these packs to distribute the weight. All together, twenty kilos each and enough gear to leave a trail back to the ship if necessary."

"Grab a few thermal detonators and concussion grenades from that crate for the third pack," Eriana said, pointing to a grey box behind him. "It'll make up for the tent sharing."

Jacen opened the case and tossed some grenades to her one at a time over his shoulder. She caught them deftly without looking and stuffed them in the side pouches of her pack.

"They didn't recognize you," Jacen noted about their encounter with the 5th Raiders. "Don't you want to be known among the Vornskrs?"

"Normally I tend to scare the crap out of anyone with copper rings," Eriana said. "The stories told about me keep them in line with fear. I've only been on a few missions, usually the most dangerous ones, to keep my reputation up. Most of them haven't even seen my face, and the bubbly wife of their friend isn't all that scary in comparison."

"True. Would they recognize the Corusca rings?"

"Rjon would, but only if it was activated," Eriana said. "The others might think it was a hoax. The whole idea of the variations in rings was so that they would be inconspicuous. What's one crystal ring from another?"

Jaina appeared with HK-47 in tow to report the ship checked out and that she was going for a swim. Before either of them could say a word, she turned her back to them and disappeared.

"Statement: Master, I believe your meatbag sister to be rather unstable. Shall I blast her for you?"

"Stand down, HK," Jacen said. "I'd like you to find whatever supplies are available in this shuttle which might help us on the mission and get them ready for you to carry. Include anything for your own maintenance as well, but do not touch these packs."

"Query: may I bring explosives?"

"I'd be disappointed if you didn't."

While HK-47 went about searching for supplies of a constructive and a destructive nature, Jacen pulled a sealed metal case out of a cabinet and put it on the table beside the three backpacks.

"I thought you didn't want to break those out just yet," Eriana said.

"Something's bugging me," Jacen explained as he opened the case. "I can't put my finger on it so I'd prefer we were prepared."

He extracted Eriana's twin lightsabers from the foam padding and passed them to her. She hung them on the small hooks she had installed in armpits of her leather jacket and adjusted it so it looked natural.

"Keep them well hidden. I don't want to start a panic at dinner tonight."

Jacen's hand hesitated above his two lightsabers. Instead, he grabbed Jaina's first and put it in his inside jacket pocket before grabbing a specialized holster and slipping his and Anakin's into the magnetic slots. He wrapped the holster around his midsection like a belt so the lightsabers were in the small of his back and hidden from view by his loose shirt and jacket. The only items remaining in the case were Eriana's hip holsters, both twins' utility belts, and Jacen's Yuuzhan Vong robe from the future. He snapped the case shut and replaced it in the cabinet where he found it. He turned around and Eriana was staring at him with a concerned look on her face. A raised eyebrow was all it took for her to shake her head.

"I'm worried, too," she admitted. "I'll talk to the captain to see if he knows anything."

! #$%^&*()

Being the closest sentient to a celebrity on board the cruise ship, Jacen could hardly skip out on the arrival party at Charnack. While Jaina and HK-47 had escaped to do the final preparations for the shuttle's departure, the Prince of Hapes socialized with other privileged members under the oversized observation bubble at the top of the ship in clothing appropriate to his position. Even though he wore an outfit of such pomp that even Raynar Thul would have been embarrassed to be seen in, Eriana stayed with him as a guest posing as a Hapan servant, partially to avoid Jaina and partially to interact with the wealthy well-connected passengers that might be able to help her cause. The two of them were in the same exclusive area, a raised bar in the middle of the observation bubble that provided an astounding view of hyperspace. From up there they could also look down at the other passengers that congregated at the various bars and pools in the observation bubble, and it was not long before Jacen noticed the Black Vornskrs loudly enjoying shots by one of the bars. At what seemed to be no particular time, a loud gong was struck to catch the attention of everyone and an eerie silence fell over the crowd.

Jacen watched the captain step up to the podium overhanging the crowds below from just above the back of the exclusive raised bar.

"Your attention, passengers," The captain said in his deep, warm voice. "In a few moments we will be dropping out of hyperspace and you will have your first view of the Charnack planetary ring directly on the port side of the ship."

The captain gestured to his left and the lights dimmed as the ship smoothly decelerated from hyperspace to display a ship launching a flurry of laser blasts directly at the unshielded observation bubble.

~! #$%^&*()

Five minutes before breaking out of hyperspace, Tahiri's danger sense went wild. People were dying. Jacen was in a panic. And Sekava was happy.

"What's wrong?"

Lanos must have noticed her fast, shallow breaths. Or the hand on her chest trying to grab the intangible source of the pain invading her heart.

"Sekava's killing people and Jacen's in trouble," Tahiri said in a rush and activated the internal comm system. "Everyone, we're dropping out of hyperspace in four and a half minutes. Get those weapons hot."

~! #$%^&*()

Laser blasts burned through the expansive transparisteel windows and slammed into the deck, bars, pools and sentients scattered around the observation bubble. Blue lights flashed on as air began to whistle out of the bubble, and bodies were not far behind. A panic broke out immediately and screaming sentients ran and pulled themselves as quickly as they could to find cover while trying to resist the pull of the vacuum.

"Raise the shields!" Jacen heard the captain shouting into his wrist communicator, but he knew that would have no effect on the air leak. Among the people and other loose object projectiles, the pool water was getting sucked out with people inside them, and the outer ship shields were not designed to contain atmosphere.

"He's coming around again," someone shouted and Jacen braced himself against the railing as another set of blaster bolts came blazing through the transpairsteel, streaking through the air and slaughtering people below with explosions that sprayed people with molten durasteel. A support pillar holding the great transparisteel dome collapsed from the damage and a giant spider web crack developed against the pull of the escaping air.

Jacen grabbed Eriana's hand and stared into her eyes. Together they focused on the leaks, using their combined ability with the Force to contain the air. After a few tense moments the air finally stopped moving.

"Get out of here," Jacen shouted to the dignitaries. "Move, move, move!"

Eriana maintained her focus while Jacen lent her his power and he looked around the room. Three quarters of the sentients had already escaped or were sucked out, but several people, including the 5th Raiders, were stuck between the fallen support beam and the flames spewing out of the deck.

"Captain, get yourself to the bridge," Jacen commanded. "We'll hold them off as best we can!"

"Thank you!" The captain ran down the stairwell from the already-deserted dignitary platform and the attacking ship launched another salvo of laser blasts toward the bubble. Jacen took his concentration off lending Eriana his power and grabbed the fire near the 5th Raiders. He pulled it up with a pocket of air and pushed it out through one of the holes in the window, launching it toward the attacking ship. While the flare did no damage to the ship, it was distracting enough for the pilot to abort his strafing run.

_Hello, Solo_, a familiar presence signalled though the Force. _Today is a good day to die._

_Sekava,_ Jacen sent back. _If you feel that way, go fly into a sun._

"I can't hold it," Eriana said through gritted teeth. Already the air was starting to whistle out again. "We have to go!"

Jacen grabbed her hand and together the two Jedi jumped off the platform. They used the Force to pull themselves to the deck plating against the airflow and pulled a bubble of air around themselves. Jacen ran for the 5th Raiders with Eriana a couple steps behind. He shoved the ornate durasteel support pillar aside with the Force and pulled as much residual air as he could into the bubble to encompass the entire group of them to preserve their air.

"We have to go," Eriana shouted. With the air in Jacen's bubble not moving, the artificial gravity was strong enough to allow everyone to scramble to their feet and follow the two Jedi toward the nearest exit at the group's fastest possible speed. Several people, including the captain, were already suffocated mere metres from the door. Eriana used the Force to shove the dead bodies out of the way so they could reach the door. To save the rest of the ship, without a pressure seal the door would not open, so Jacen pressed the air bubble up to the door and it slid open on command. He and Eriana waited by the door to get the remaining ten survivors through to relative safety before going through themselves and sealing the door behind them.

"We have to get to the ship," Jacen whispered. They pushed past the crowd of exhausted passengers they had saved and almost fell over as the ship rocked from another strafing run.

"Hey, that's Jenos's wife with Jacen Solo!" Rjon exclaimed, recognizing Jacen's outfit but not his face. "He's a war hero!"

Jacen waived but followed Eriana down the hallway past the crying survivors of the initial attack. The ship rocked with turbolaser impacts as they stepped around other passengers and did their best not to fall.

"Attention passengers, this is the first mate," A nervous voice boomed above the emergency klaxons. "Please report to the emergency shelters in the middle of the ship immediately! We are calculating the jump to hyperspace!"

The implications of departing the system prematurely were not lost on Jacen and Eriana. Without a word they started running as best they could through the hallway toward the back of the ship where their hanger bay was located. Most people had begun to get the message and were retreating toward the middle of the ship for safety, compounding the difficulty of getting through the masses of bodies as the two Jedi fought against the flow of traffic.

They finally broke through the crowd and sprinted the last fifty metres down the hallway. They jumped over flights of stairs in one bound each to reach the service floor with the hanger bay, and ten metres down the hall they reached the door. Eriana punched her code into the lock and the doors slid open.

"What took you so long?" Jaina demanded from the ramp of the shuttle.

"Get the ship moving!" Eriana shouted back. They ran aboard the ship and Jacen noticed they had been followed just as the ramp started to close.

"The Raiders are outside!" Jacen shouted to Eriana.

"_What?_"

The two of them ran to the cockpit and saw the four 5th Raider members and six others who had followed them. Eriana activated the external communication device.

"Return to the safety shelter imm..."

A pair of blaster bolts lanced through the hanger and struck the blast door leading into the hallway the followers had just come from. While the bolt was not strong enough to penetrate the inner door, the twisted metal door would not open any time soon.

"Eriana, we have to take them," Jaina said. "This hanger..."

"I know, we got it because the mag field was damaged."

"So if we open the hanger door..."

"They die. The air is already escaping. Jacen, let them in."

"Did you two forget we're hunting _Sith Lords_?" Jacen demanded.

"They may die with us, but they will suffocate if we don't take them with us," Eriana reasoned. "I don't like it either, but we have to!"

Reluctantly, Jacen used the Force to activate the ramp and ran back to gesture them aboard. The ten followers ran aboard and Jacen directed them to strap in.

"GO!"

Jaina did not hesitate. She activated the command sequence to open the hanger doors and popped the shuttle onto the repulsorlifts. As soon as the hanger bay door was open wide enough, she slammed the throttle forward. A second after the shuttle exited the hanger, the cruise ship jumped to hyperspace leaving the shuttle alone with the Sith attackers in pursuit.

"Jaina, I have every faith in you to out fly him," Jacen said as he re-entered the cockpit and strapped himself into the navigator's seat. "Are there any weapons on this tub?"

"Just the ones strapped to the wall back there," Eriana gestured with her thumb. "Everyone, hold on tight!"

Jaina let the Force guide her hand as she deftly avoided the laser fire from the attacking ship.

_One, two, three Jedi, and a whole lot of extras,_ Sekava's sadistic sing-songy voice intruded on the silence through the Force. _Who shall we kill first?_

"Nobody, if I can help it," Jacen muttered to himself. He looked out the view port and saw Sekava's skiff flying beside them close enough that he could see the Sith Lord waving to him. He gathered the Force and used it to rip an entire blaster turret right off the enemy ship. He began to punch holes in the hull before Sekava dropped back and realigned with the back of their ship to unleash a stream of laser blasts from the remaining cannon.

~! #$%^*()

Tahiri was almost in tears as the last seconds ticked away on the navicomputer and Lanos finally deactivated the hyperdrive. Tahiri yelped when an almost naked body bounced off the cockpit window with a disgusting heavy thud. Several other frozen bodies were in a slow morbid cartwheel travelling through space, again, with almost no clothing on.

"They must have attacked the pool deck," Lanos said in his expressionless battle voice.

"Jacen's over there," Tahiri pointed without referring to the instruments. "Sekava's chasing him."

Lanos swung the ship around and maxed out the throttles. There was an old troop transport in the lead getting attacked by a YV-666 light freighter behind it. Trigger and Blade's turrets began spitting out angry red blaster bolts before Lanos could order an attack, and the light freighter broke to port.

"Detonate the explosives we planted," Lanos suggested as he followed the sharp turn of the smaller ship.

"No use," Tahiri said. "This entire system is flooded with E.M. radiation that is blocking communications. We'd have to fly within a metre of that ship to get the signal through, and at that range we'd get caught in the explosion."

~! #$%^&*()

Jaina swerved to avoid the blasts, but Sekava was still able to take out one of their engines, the sensor array, and a couple of stabilizer ports.

"We've got a problem," Jaina said. "We're caught in the gravitational pull of the planet and we're going in, but this thing won't fly again once we're down."

"Are the engines that badly damaged?" Jacen asked.

"No, but when the ship slams into the ground, the damage will be pretty bad," Jaina responded. "We'll be lucky to make it down alive!"

"At least he stopped firing at us," Eriana said.

"There's another ship out there that engaged him," Jacen said, using the Force to gain a perspective. He smiled when he recognized the occupants of the other ship and sent a pulse of appreciation to Tahiri.

"We're going down," Jaina said as the ship started shaking from the friction of the atmosphere. "Based on our telemetry we'll be lucky to be within ten kilometres of our target."

"May the Force be with you, Jaina."

~! #$%^&*()

The cockpit fell silent as the two warriors focused their efforts on attacking Sekava's freighter. Lanos followed Sekava's every move, spinning the larger ship to keep the freighter in the sight of a gunner turret as long as possible. The port engine exploded brilliantly, sending Sekava's ship into a dive for the planet.

"Good shot, Trigger!" Tahiri exclaimed. "Keep after them!"

The two ships dived into the atmosphere, the larger Mandalorian ship easily following the smoke trail left by the Sith freighter. With shields ineffective in atmosphere, Lanos kept a short distance back to allow Trigger and Blade to continue punishing the other ship.

"That ship isn't going to fly again," Tahiri said. "I'm reading critical damage to everything but the starboard engine."

An explosion rocked the Mandalorian ship and various reports flashed red.

"Break!" Tahiri shouted. Another explosion rocked the ship and Lanos finally twisted the ship aside. "He found our explosives! He's throwing them at us! Our hyperdrive and starboard engine are down."

"We can't fight like this," Lanos said through gritted teeth and pulled off the pursuit. "Find me a spot to land."

_He got away _again. Lanos thought, _But this time we have him_.


	13. Stranded, stranded, and stranded

Ugh. Weekend from hell. Sorry about the late post. Next one will be on the following Monday, too, since I'm going to be mighty busy preparing for a big event.

JRD - Sorry! Of all the weekends to miss it... Fat One I'm undecided on. I don't know if I want to develop another character yet. Or hold that in reserve... Hmm... Jaina and Eriana will know his name, but they won't know the signficiance. Jacen doesn't even fully understand HK-47, now that I think about it. The reason it didn't work for Eriana is in HK's response to Jacen - she's not the master. Team Awesome kept close to keep a weapon's lock. Close would've been 200ish metres...not like they're scraping paint or anything, but at those speeds it's close.

Sioux - Yes, Jaina's quite a grumpy one, isn't she? I basically had to write my brother's behaviour... Tau Ceti...is an actual star that we can see in our night sky. I just needed a name and...well...I took it from Star Trek, not Star Wars. Mybad. It isn't the first time I've done that! I don't even know what happened there yet. I just made a reference up. I wanted something to reinforce how close those two are and that they have lots of history without saying "These two are such old friends..." I find it tacky how some stories I've seen reinforce information that way. *cough*SkywardSword*cough*

Thanks, Onimi :)

Hope you enjoy this:

* * *

Thanks in no small part to the efforts of Eriana and Jacen slowing down the momentum of the shuttle, Jaina was able to perform a controlled crash along a river bed away from the trees. The shuttle skipped along the pebbly river bed, bounced across the water, and tumbled nose over stern several times before it came to a stop nose down in the river. Jacen was able to stay conscious for the crash, using the Force to ease the g-forces on his body, but he was hanging forward in his crash webbing not really sitting in the chair anymore since the ship's gravity no longer applied or functioned. Several people in the back were sobbing, which did not help Jacen's mood.

"Is anyone hurt?" Jacen asked as he released his crash webbing and hopped onto the control panel to assess his sister and friend.

"A few of us were bumped around back here," someone called out. "Some rescue! We would've been better off getting blasted to hell on that cruise ship!"

Jacen ignored the irate comment and Eriana nodded to him that she was fine. He checked Jaina, but she was unconscious. Using the Force he was able to determine that there were no serious injuries to worry about. He turned to his droid, similarly hanging in the communication's chair crash webbing.

"HK, can you climb out of here?"

"Enthusiastic response: Of course, Master! My new body is ideal for climbing!"

"Good. Find the emergency water landing kit and open the back hatch if it isn't under water. We'll need to float everyone to shore. If it is under water or the kit is damaged, let me know and I'll think of something."

"Comment: It would be easier to blast the meatbags, Master. Fewer bodies to track."

"We're doing this the Jedi way, HK."

"Disappointed query: Why is the Jedi way always so devoid of fun, Master?"

Jacen unlatched Jaina's crash webbing and caught her body on his shoulder as she limply fell out of the chair.

"You okay with her?" Eriana asked, finally free of her own seat and perched on the control panel beside him.

"Yeah, you go ahead. Start getting the gear together and organize everyone to get out."

Eriana climbed up the shuttle interior using control panels, Jacen's evacuated seat, and the door frame to hoist herself into the passenger compartment. Once she was clear, Jacen used the Force to lift his sister onto the bulkhead separating the cockpit from the back compartment and raided the cockpit for anything useful. He found a spare holdout blaster, a very old bottle of whisky, an emergency tool and ration kit, a deck of sabbacc cards, and an old paper field repair guide. By the time he pulled himself up to the back section, half of the passengers had already been evacuated to the inflatable raft under HK-47's supervision and were on their way to shore.

"I see they helped themselves to the blasters," Jacen gestured to the bare rack on the wall.

"Our Vornskrs got them first," Eriana said, rummaging through the silver case that had contained their lightsabers. She was already wearing her holster and had her lightsabers inside it. "Here's your belt and your robe. I'll hang onto Jaina's belt."

"I wish I had a chance to get my armoured suit on," Jacen said, removing his formal outfit and slipping the belt and robe on. "I left it on my bed."

"Next victims!" HK-47 called cheerily to the remaining passengers. They slowly began climbing their way toward the assassin droid.

"Good thing we brought spares. And we kept our lightsabers on us, too."

"Yep," Jacen extracted his lightsabers from the special holster around his waist and slipped them into the slots on his calf holsters. He grabbed some fragmentation grenades from the explosives crate and filled his back holster with four of them.

"Jacen?"

"Hey, Jaina, how do you feel?"

Jaina pulled herself up to a sitting position with Jacen's help and put a hand to her temple.

"Like a bantha parade is going through my head."

"I'm going to fire the pilot, if that helps." Jacen grinned.

"Good call," Jaina agreed. "What's our status?"

"We're nose first in a creek," Eriana said. "Rjon's taking the last of the passengers on the inflatable and then he'll come back for us and HK."

"What were they thinking?" Jaina asked.

"They recognized me and thought they'd be safer with a 'war hero' than on the cruise ship," Jacen said wryly. "They obviously didn't know what was going on."

"Or what you're really like," Jaina said. "Can we pull the emergency transponder and leave them somewhere?"

"No point. This planet has communications jammed from every direction," Eriana said. "The planet's ring emits an EM field that inhibits communication signals, and I had Karrde put jamming satellites all over the sector so Soora wouldn't know we were coming."

"They have to come with us," Jacen said. "If Sekava comes down here to find us, he'll be ruthless. He's going to pick them off just to hear them scream. We're the only chance they have of getting off this rock alive and we can't take the risk that he won't come down here, especially if he's this close to killing me."

Jaina looked ready to protest, but Jacen cut her off.

"I know," he said. "I know. We're hunting a Sith Lord and we have ten civilians, six of whom have with no combat experience that we know of. We also only have food supplies for three people for a week. With thirteen people we don't even have two days worth of food. And we'll be lucky if we only lose half of them by the time we find Soora."

The three Jedi shared some heavy stares between each other, but the weight of the situation hit home. They had no other choice but to bring everyone with them.

"What do we tell them?" Eriana asked. "We're already seeing divisions among them. I think we should tell the Raiders who we are to get them on our side."

"Master, your turn to get on the floating plastic raft of death," HK-47's voice called out.

"'Ey, this boat 'as the best pilot 'round. Hop on, ye rusty ol' buckey o'bolts."

"Oh, this is going be fun," Jacen groaned. "We'll think of something. We should be careful. Some of them may be supporters of what's left of the Galactic Alliance and not take too kindly to being around Jedi."

Jacen strapped his pack on his back and climbed his way toward his assassin droid.

"Try not to kill him just yet," Jacen ordered his droid and tossed his pack to Rjon. He took his first look around the planet. The beautiful deep green river of water swallowed almost the entire shuttle with about twenty centimetres to spare. Looking against the flow of the river Jacen saw that they were at the foothills of a mountain, and downstream was a long path of water leading into a deep valley. Several kilometres towards the mountains were a pair of smoke trails, likely from the other two ships that had gone down not far from their location. He hopped into the raft and helped Jaina get her pack aboard, followed by Eriana. The two women got aboard, but HK-47 froze.

"Statement: Master, I do believe my calculations have reached an error."

"Your armour is too heavy."

"Yes, Master."

"We could just take your head with us," Jaina suggested.

"Shocked reply: Dismember me? Leave my glorious new body behind? Blasphemy!

"Plea for sanity: Master, may I shoot your meatbag sister just this once? I promise it will hurt her greatly."

"Permission denied." Jacen lifted HK-47 with the Force and nodded to Rjon. Rjon and Eriana pulled the rope that had been affixed to a tree on shore and the raft travelled along the ten metre journey to shore. What Jacen noticed first about the group of survivors was that two of them were sitting off to the side crying and a group of four were talking – or plotting, perhaps. The other three Vornskrs waited patiently for the raft to arrive, ready to do their part in helping the group survive. When they were almost there, Jacen pushed HK-47 ahead and placed him gently on the river bank.

Mala held the raft while Raggy and Lana took the packs and helped the passengers disembark.

Once safely on the ground and away from the shore, Eriana pulled a map out of her backpack to figure out where they might be and where they had to go. The Vornskrs proceeded to fold up the raft and collect the rope they had tied to a tree.

"So what are we doing here?"

Jacen and Jaina looked up to see a middle-aged, balding man staring at his Jedi 'saviours.' He was wearing some bright red and orange swim wear and an old pair of boots the twins recognized from their earlier search of a cabinet in the shuttle. The other four passengers, a Gand and an older couple of Bothans, were huddled around him staring at the Jedi waiting to hear the answer.

"_We_ are here to complete a mission," Jacen responded. "_You_ are here because you followed me instead of going to your designated safety zone like you were supposed to."  
"I thought Jedi were supposed to protect people," the balding man sneered. "You got us stranded on this uncivilized rock!"

"Nobody can protect you from yourself," Jacen responded. Jaina put a hand on his arm and pushed past him.

"We were on a mission and we did not expect you to follow us," Jaina explained. "We couldn't leave you behind because the shielding in the hanger and the door was damaged. This mission is very dangerous so we will need you to listen to our instructions and trust us."

"Trust you? You just crashed our only means of getting off this rock. Why would we do that?"

"The only mission should be to get us home!" The older Bothan lady called out. She was still wearing her high heel shoes and a black cocktail dress.

Jaina looked back at her brother helplessly and he shrugged.

"We'll get you home when we can," Jacen replied. He grabbed his sister's arm and pulled her back toward Eriana where the four Vornskrs and HK-47 had congregated.

"Rjon, I'm sure you've figured it out by now that we are Jenos and Kailey," Jacen said to the leader of the 5th Raiders. He held out his Corusca ring and activated the logo. "Eriana and I are the leaders of the Black Vornksrs. We expect all of you to follow our orders."

Rjon was shocked by the revelation, but did his best to hide it. He nodded sharply in agreement, as did the others.

"We have your backs, Sirs" Rjon said smartly.

"So you're not married to her?" Lana asked.

Everyone looked at her with disbelief.

_That's what you come up with?_ Jaina thought.

"I'm married to the reigning monarch of the Hapes Consortium," Jacen said. "Eriana's my friend."

"You lied to me," Lana said. Her bottom lip started to quiver and tears began forming in her eyes. "How could you _lie_ to me?"

"We're not dealing with this now," Eriana interrupted and pointed upriver toward the mountain. "We need to go that way. If our information is correct, we should be able to follow this river to cross about half the distance we need to cover. Jaina, you got us pretty close, but we'll still have to cross about fifty kilometres up the mountain."

"How _dare_ you cut me off?" Lana demanded.

If Eriana's eyes could emit blaster bolts, the look she gave Lana would have blasted her head off. She held up a lightsaber handle in the hand with the Black Vornskr ring and activated the logo and lightsaber in unison.

"Have you heard the stories about the leader of the Black Vornskrs?" Eriana growled. "Might want to ask your captain what this means if you don't stay on task."

"Won't happen again, m'lady," Rjon said sheepishly. He grabbed Lana by the arm and pulled her further away from the group to talk some sense into the distraught young woman.

"Put that away," Jaina hissed at Eriana and pulled her aside as well. "Let's check with the group to make sure they're okay and ready to hike out. They're not going to be too happy when they find out we're hiking fifty kilometres up a mountain, especially if you're making threats with a lightsaber."

"You take the two girls crying on the log over there," Eriana suggested to Jaina as she deactivated and holstered her lightsaber. "Jacen, you talk to the two old folks, and I'll take the fat bald guy and the Gand. Raggy, Mala, take the droid with you and patrol the parameter until we're ready to head out."

~! #$%^&()

For nearly ten minutes the Mandalorians silently stared at holographic topical map of the terrain they were forced to land in before anyone spoke. At one end of the map was a red marker indicating their best guess on where Sekava's ship had been forced down. Down the middle was a blue river that meandered through the forest around a mountain, and a green dot at the edge of the map indicated where Jacen's ship had gone down in the river. Not far from the mountain on the opposite side of the river from where Sekava had gone down, a yellow marker indicated their location.

"Too bad we didn't know all this before we set down," Lanos said.

"The engines wouldn't have made it anywhere else," Squeak said with almost a measure of fear in his voice. "I'm surprised both didn't cut out with the damage they took."

"You can fix it, right?" Parmis asked.

"Yeah, we loaded up plenty of spare parts," Squeak said. "But I'll need help. And time."

"Parmis, you stay behind with Squeak," Lanos said. His eyes still remained locked on the map as if it might disappear at any moment and he wanted to make sure he remembered every detail he could. "Do we have any idea where they're headed?"

"Jacen sent me an image of the mountain," Tahiri said and pointed to the grey rock not far from their ship. "I think they're heading this way."

"That means Sekava will as well," Parmis said. "There's no way we can take him if we split up."

"Squeak, how quickly can you get the ship fixed up enough to fly?" Lanos asked.

"The starboard engine took the brunt of the damage," Squeak said. "The port engine I can get up and running by tonight, easily. She'll fly on one engine, but she won't make orbit. And before you ask, I can't fix the ship in the air. Mechanics don't mix well with wind or atmospheric static."

"Trigger, Blade, Tahiri: set up a perimeter of cloaked sensor beacons about a kilometre out," Lanos said. "If Sekava triggers the alarm, I want everyone ready to throw everything we have at him. After Squeak finishes repairing the port engine, we'll head out and leave him and Parmis to fix the ship. Parmis, if one of those alarms goes off, get the ship in the air. You'll be safe up there."

"Good plan, but I don't think it'll be necessary," Tahiri said. "Sekava has Jacen trapped on this planet. We will not be his first priority."

Everyone stared at the holo for a few moments as her words sank in. Squeak finally walked away, muttering about the engines not fixing themselves. The others slowly disbursed to perform their assigned duties until Lanos was alone, still absorbing every detail of the map.

~! #$%^&*()

Some planets do not make sense. Mustafar, a planet covered in molten lava, seems like the most impossible place for any life to exist. Much like the way that Hoth is a ball of ice that seems like the least likely place for wildlife to develop. Then there's Utapau. Now that's an odd one. Every spec of life lives in one of many deep chasms, far below the surface that is prone to winds in excess of a hundred kilometres per hour on a calm day. But this planet, in Sekava's mind, was far more bizarre than any he had heard about.

_The trees are growing out of the sky. The sky looks like the ground. The ground looks like the sky. What the frak?_

"Master!"

Sekava tried turning around to find the voice, but _he was floating in the sky-ground!_

"Masakra?" he shouted. "Where are you? We're floating!"

"Master, I'm behind you," Masakra's voice came again.

Sekava tilted his head back and saw his apprentice…standing on the ground-sky!

"Why are you on the sky?" Sekava demanded. "Get up here on the ground!"

"You're caught in a tree," Masakra said in disbelief. He raised his hand and used the Force to lift his master off the branch his belt had been caught on and eased him to his feet on the ground.

"So _that_ explains the trickery," Sekava said thoughtfully. "What happened?"

"We crashed," Masakra said and pointed to a stream of smoke wafting up from somewhere about a kilometre away. "That's the engine section."

He pointed to the dozen or so trees that looked like The Fist of Death rained down upon them.

"That's the cockpit section. Somehow we hit a tree, the ship broke in half and we were thrown out of it. I ended up in a lake. You ended up in a tree."

"I see," Sekava said. The fuzzy details were beginning to sharpen. It was all becoming clear again. "We must prepare our attack. Come with me. We'll collect some animals."

"Animals?" Masakra asked. His master began wandering off into the forest. "Why do we need animals?"

Either Sekava did not hear him or did not care to acknowledge his apprentice, he merely walked into the woods. Within ten minutes, Masakra stopped trying to ask questions. When his master became focused, nothing could stop him.

The two Sith Lords wandered for almost an hour before Maskara realized that a giant grey cat was walking beside him. Completely startled, he backed right into another cat that was following him.

"Sekava!" he hissed, but his master ignored him.

The cats walked past Maskara and were soon joined by five others that were seemingly oblivious to the Bothan and his human companion. Suddenly Sekava stopped and turned to look at his apprentice…and so did each of the cats.

"Are you coming, or not?"

~! #$%^&*()_

The Jedi split up and Jacen went up to the older couple, directing the Gand and bald man to speak to Eriana. He introduced himself and learned that they were Renato and Marlene Gosular, retired professors from the University of Telos. To his surprise, Renato served with the rebellion to restore the Republic on Hoth before being captured by the Empire in the escape. After years of captivity he was finally rescued by a Rogue Squadron operation and was too shell shocked to continue fighting, instead turning to a life of academics. Marlene had been his Bothan History TA in his first year, and the rest was history.

"I knew your father long ago," Renato remembered fondly. "Always fighting with the Wookiee and that derelict ship of his. Is he still flying that thing or has it fallen apart yet?"

Jacen could not help but laugh.

"Jacen, come here!" Jaina called.

"Excuse me," Jacen said and ran over to his sister. She spread open a few tears in the pant leg of the teenage girl who had been crying earlier, revealing several nasty chunks of shrapnel embedded in her leg.

"When did this happen?" Jacen asked gently, looking up to the girl. She was still sobbing, her eyes wrinkled in pain.

"When we were in the hanger and the blaster bolts hit," the other woman said in a cultured Coruscanti accent. While she had been crying as well, it appeared she was better off than the distraught teenager. "Some of the metal hit her. I practically had to carry her onto the ship."

_We need to get the metal out,_ Jacen thought over the twin bond. _I can do a lot to heal her up, but she can't walk on this._

_How long will that take?_

_Two hours. It's bad._

_We should scrub the mission, _Jaina thought. _This is insane._

_Where do you expect us to go?_ Jacen asked. _We don't have a ship. We have to complete the mission, and after that we can steal Soora's ship._

"What's your name?" Jacen asked the girl before Jaina could respond.

"Erinn," she said, but the effort to speak made her cringe.

"Erinn, I'm going to put you to sleep and take care of your injury," Jacen said as softly as he could. "I'll do my best to remove the pain, okay?"

She nodded painfully and Jacen placed a hand to her cheek. After a second she slumped against his hand and he eased her to the ground.

"I need the med kit from my pack," Jacen said to his sister. "Tell HK to help me out. You and Eriana may as well take everyone and get started up the river while it's still light. We'll be about two hours behind you."

"Up the river?" The other woman asked. "What are you talking about?"

"Cora, we came here for a mission," Jaina said. "We'll be hiking about fifty kilometres over the next few days, and you're all coming with us."

"You're crazy," Cora said. "All of us hiking up that mountain? What's so important up there?"

"Can't tell you," Jacen said. "And we can't leave you behind. It's too dangerous to split up."

"But you want to split up now," Cora protested.

"Someone needs to save this girl's life," Jacen said. "HK-47 doesn't need sleep, and I can keep going without sleep far longer than anyone else here. He can carry her and I'll keep her safe. The longer you protest, the longer it'll take to get moving and the lower my chances of saving Erinn's life will be."

"What about Sekava?" Jaina asked. "I saw two smoke trails go down in that direction. One had to be his."

"You and Eriana will be able to handle him," Jacen assured her. "Soora's the only one I'm worried about. Before you go, tell Eriana to stay back a minute. I need to talk to her."

~! #$%^&*()

Blade and Trigger sat with their backs against each side of the same fin on the starboard side of the Mandalorian ship staring out into the jungle surrounding them. Since they blasted two curious large grey cats, nothing had decided their ship was worth bothering. They had spent all night taking shifts sleeping and watching. Either the noise created by Parmis, Squeak and Tahiri working on the engine kept everything's curiosity at bay, or the ship was a complete disinterest to the world around them. Squeak had discovered more damage than he had expected when he opened the cowling on the port engine and it had taken Parmis and Squeak all night to repair it. Tahiri assisted while she was not on shift, insisting that she could keep awake without rest.

Blade and Trigger had finally finished watching the sunrise when Trigger stood up and brought his heavy repeating blaster to the ready and launched an attack. After ten seconds of continuous fire, his target was obliterated. Blade came around the stabilizer fin with her weapon ready to destroy whatever else might be attacking.

"Where is it?" She demanded.

"There." Trigger pointed with his black armoured finger at a collection of rock shards which had been a boulder a minute before. "That rock looked like a Sith Lord."

"Yes, and it was a very threatening rock, too," Blade admitted sarcastically. "Maybe you'll want to take that tree out beside it so it lands on top of us."

Trigger grabbed a grenade off his bandoleer, but Blade grabbed him by the wrist to stop him from throwing it.

"C'mon, Blade, it's boring as hell up here."

"I'm not going to let you kill us just because you're bored!" Blade shouted. She flicked her communicator on. "Squeak, you done yet? Trigger's trying to kill us for fun again."

"Yeah, we're just load testing," Parmis responded. "You guys can get ready to go."

"Finally," Trigger muttered and replaced the grenade on his bandoleer.

Twenty minutes later the appropriate tests were done and the ship was certified for low-level flying. Trigger took point and led the group through the forest on Lanos's directions, crashing a path through the brush by brute force. Hours of hiking passed without incident as they trudged through the forest in the direction they hoped Jacen would be. Every couple of hours Tahiri would inform them on an update of Jacen's position, which generally assured them that they were on the right track. Together, Team Awesome fell into a steady pace fighting through the underbrush ready for anything in their path.

~! #$%^&*()

With the _Squawking Mynock_ parked on a relatively high elevation where the trees were sparse enough to accommodate a ship that size, most of the terrain that Team Awesome had traversed was downhill toward a river running down a valley between mountains. Even though night had fallen, Tahiri spent most of her time looking into the distance down the gentle slope of the valley. Her mind fixed was on Jacen's location, like a beacon in the night sky. It made her look distracted and absent minded to the others, but the focus gave her the resolve to push through the dense underbrush and put up with everything from insects to stepping in an unseen pond.

"Should've taken up our offer for armour," Trigger said after she made everyone stop so she could dry out her boots with the Force.

While it was certainly true that the Mandalorian armour would have made her trek through the forest more tolerable, especially with the night vision capabilities, she found the helmet HUD too distracting to concentrate on the Force and the armour restricted her movement too much to use a lightsaber. When they ran into Sekava, she did not want to fight her clothes _and_ a Sith Lord, even though she still felt like an idiot with the three commandos staring at her as she telekinetically pulled the water out her boots.

"Why don't you guys find some higher ground and see if you can see anything?" She suggested irritably. "This might take a while."

"I call that boulder!" Trigger shouted. He sprinted as fast as he could toward a ten metre high rock face and scaled it with the grace of a seasoned rock climber.

_He's like a four year old on a sugar rush,_ Tahiri thought. She brought her attention back to her boots as Blade walked away to join Trigger on the boulder, but Lanos stayed at her side.

"How are you holding up?" Lanos asked. "You haven't slept since we got here."

"Fine," Tahiri said in the same irritated voice, not taking her eyes off her boot. A firm hand on her shoulder brought her attention to the black visor of Lanos's gold helmet. "Seriously, I'm fine. I just have this...nagging feeling that things are going to end up badly. I feel the sooner we get to Jacen, the better off we'll be."

"Hey, guys, get up here," Trigger called in an uncharacteristically serious voice. "There are some serious fireworks going on out there."

Tahiri dropped her boots and ran over to Trigger's boulder, jumping it in a single Force-enhanced leap. Lanos climbed up and joined them a minute later, but he did not miss much of the action.

On either side of the river were two combat points. One point had two yellow lightsabers clashing against three red lightsabers, and the other had a violet lightsaber swinging around and blaster bolts flying in multiple directions.

"Jacen's over there," Tahiri said, pointing somewhere several kilometres away from the combat points. "He must have been separated from Eriana and Jaina."

"I can't see any details," Lanos growled, gesturing to his assault rifle. "This thing doesn't have the optics of a sniper rifle."

"I can't see anything either," Tahiri said. "I'm not too good at Force-enhanced vision."

"One red is down," Blade said. "And the yellow lightsabers are out."

"Looks like they've disengaged," Lanos said. "The purple lightsaber just went out."

"We have to go," Tahiri said urgently. "We have to catch up to them."

"No." Lanos grabbed her arm. "We need to rest. This boulder is a defensible position."

"I'm not tired," Tahiri pulled her arm free. "We need to get over there!"

"_We_ are," Lanos replied. "And there is nothing we can do tonight. We're no use to them if we find them and we're too exhausted to stand. That's easily 20 kilometres we'd have to cover."  
Tahiri looked ready to protest, but Lanos pulled something from a compartment on his leg. It was a tranquilizer that Mandalorians often used to take bounties alive. "Don't make me drug you for the night."

"I'll take first watch," Tahiri offered.

"Nice try," Lanos said and jabbed the tranq into her neck. "I don't need you wandering off. You take first sleep."


	14. Long road to ruin

**A/N**: My real life sucks. Sorry.

Jacen and HK-47 had hiked for five hours before they found the first sign that something had gone wrong. Jacen nearly tripped over the carcass of a large black cat in the dim light of the moons. He crouched down to examine the feline and noted multiple lightsaber burns, the open yet unseeing eyes, and the front claws dug into the ground that seemed to have been used to drag the body the last three metres of its life judging by the state of the ground beneath the animal. The look of fear seemed permanently etched in the cat's giant face.

"This thing is big enough to take on a pack of vornskrs," Jacen commented, lifting one of the paws to examine it better. The giant paw was bigger than both of his hands put together, and the claws curled nearly the length of his fingers. "It must weigh four hundred kilos. And the claws appear to be reinforced with some sort of diamond-like mineral. I wouldn't be surprised if the entire bone structure has this sort of crystalline structure throughout it."

"Query: Shall I drop this unconscious meatbag and prepare to blast some furbags?"

"Not yet," Jacen said cautiously, but he pulled his lightsabers from their holsters and drew his presence in the Force to nearly nothing. "But let's pick up the pace."

As they ran along the river bank they passed by another dead cat and finally came to a fallen tree. They followed the tree into the forest until a pair of yellow lightsabers nearly bisected Jacen. He jumped back right into HK-47 and Erinn, but was still able to activate his green and purple blades to deflect the attack.

"Jacen?!" Eriana's voice called out. He felt her brush him with the Force and her lightsaber blades disappeared. He deactivated his own lightsabers, plunging them back into darkness.

"What happened?"

"Sekava attacked," Eriana explained, activating a glowrod. The bright blue light gave her a look far more haunted than she felt in the Force. "He got some big cats to do his dirty work. Come on."

They followed Eriana back to the campsite and found an extinguished but still smoking campfire surrounded by the survivors of the crash. Rjon was tending to a nasty cut on Cora's arm, Jaina was trying to calm Lana's sobbing, and Raggy was tying the arm of the balding man in a sling.

"Where are the others?" Jacen whispered to Eriana. She pointed into the woods.

"Marlene, Nivix and Mala were hit first," Eriana explained quietly. "Jaina didn't even sense them coming. Three cats attacked and...it wasn't pretty. Jaina and the other three Vornskrs were able to drive them off. I was looking for firewood when I heard Sekava and some other guy talking. I was able to get the jump on them. I injured the other one pretty good – a Bothan – but I took off when I sensed Jaina and the others were under attack."

"Masakra. Shavit," Jacen said. "You did the right thing. HK-47, gently place Erinn down over there with Rjon and Cora and set up some of your sensor relays. I want to know if anything comes within fifty metres of this camp."

HK-47 moved off to complete his assigned task without the slightest sound of his servomotors.

"Jacen." Eriana put a hand on his shoulder to grab his attention. "Sekava's _good_. Damn good. He was controlling those cats while keeping up with me. Be careful if you face him. He's not the messed up kid you fought before."

Jacen nodded and went to check on Jaina and Lana. Lana tackle-hugged him and sobbed uncontrollably.

"Mala...friend..."

"I know," Jacen said sympathetically. "I know."

A second later Lana went quiet and slumped in Jacen's arms. He gently laid her down and turned to face the glare Jaina had been using to burn an imaginary hole through his head.

"Her crying would only attract more predators." Jacen defended his action, but he could sense her foul mood persisting. "Hey, when we get attacked by machines, you can figure out the best way to deal with them. I'm the animal expert here."

"She wanted comfort, not sleep," Jaina said. "As annoying as you think she is, she's still a person."

"Crying people fall asleep all time." Jacen pushed past his sister and went to check on the one survivor he did not know the name of. "I just sped it up. She'll feel a lot better when she wakes up."

Jaina shook her head and disappeared in the direction of Renato, who was sitting away from the others grieving the loss of his wife.

Jacen reached the bald man as Raggy tightened the sling and let the man endure the pain before addressing him.

"We haven't met yet," Jacen said in a matter-of-fact tone. "I thought I'd come and introduce myself. I'm Jacen Solo."

"I know who you are. I'm Annor Amadis," the man said angrily. "I'm the chief executive of Chalzon Enterprises on Coruscant and I can assure you that I _will_ be taking legal action against you for the kidnapping of myself and these others. Don't think I won't bring forth the fact that this excursion has led to the breaking of my collar bone!"

"Legal action?" Jacen asked with a laugh. "You're going to sue me? You're the idiot who jumped on our ship. If any legal action should be taken, it should be against _you_ for trespassing and interference of a government sanctioned mission. I'd love to see which court you're going to prosecute the Prince of the Hapes Consortium in."

"I'll have you know..."

Jacen cut him off abruptly with a wave of his hand, momentarily silencing his vocal cords.

"I'll have _you_ know that I fully expect you to heed every command we give you," Jacen said. "If I tell you to shut up and sit down, you shut up and sit down. If I tell you to climb a tree and be on lookout, you climb the tree and be on lookout. If I tell you to jump off a cliff, you will jump off that cliff."

"I will not be spoken to like this by some snobby little..."

"This snobby little boy is your only hope of getting out of here alive," Jacen said darkly. "Or would you rather take your chances with the insane guy trying to kill us?"

"You Jedi are all alike," Annor spat. "High and mighty with no regard for us so-called lesser beings. Marvis Cree liberated us from your tyranny, and I certainly won't have it here!"

Jacen regarded Annor for a moment and snorted a laugh.

"Ignorance is bliss, isn't it?"

He stood up and saw HK-47 returning from the perimeter.

"HK, get over here. You're mister Amadis's new best friend. Keep a close eye on him and let me know if he tries anything stupid."

"Query: Master, may I blast the meatbag if he is belligerent?"

"What kind of droid is this?" Annor asked. "I will _not_ be treated this way! I have the best lawyers in the galaxy! I'll have your head for this!"

"Keep your blaster on stun, HK," Jacen said and walked away. "And try to hold off the grenade launcher for now."

~! #$%^&*()

Sekava tossed his pathetic apprentice's body to the ground and shook his head. The fight barely started, and he took a lightsaber blow that nearly cut him right in half. What a pitiful legacy for the new age of the Sith to start with.

He gathered up some wood, piled it in the small clearing he found and put his lightsaber to it. Within a couple seconds a fire started and Sekava used the Force to make it grow into a full, decent fire. He deactivated the blade and crouched in front of the fire to remove the chill from his bones. Transfixed on the dancing flames, Sekava became lost in a daydream of Dragon's fire cleansing the galaxy of corruption. Jedi, Sith, politicians, greedy corporations, errant militaries, and any form of opposition crushed and ground into nothing to be rebuilt in a new empire of the Sith. He let the Force absorb his consciousness and deliver to him the strength and power to succeed, drawing from the fire and life around him.

Victory would be assured.

~! #$%^&*()

After a relatively uneventful night of standing guard while everyone slept, HK-47 spent the morning collecting his sensor relays and packing up the meatbags' gear. By his approximations of Eriana's map, they had travelled almost ten of the fifty kilometres they were expected to cross to reach their goal, much fewer than he could have covered on his own or with the Jedi. The meatbags from the cruise ship were dreadfully slow hikers, and therefore dreadfully unchallenging prey. They complained about the heat, stopped to refill their water bottles from the river often, and the one remaining female member of the Vornskrs kept trying to attract the Master's attention by removing layers of clothing.

Keeping them alive confused HK-47. His primary programming mostly functioned on the principle of exterminating meatbags at his master's request, not preserving them. Jacen Solo had been among the most interesting and perplexing of Masters, and, considering HK-47's long history, that was quite a solution for him to have calculated.

Once all the gear was packed up, Eriana passed out rations to the meatbags and they set out along the shore of the river. Master Jacen carried the still unconscious injured meatbag girl along just in front of Annor while HK followed to keep a close-range optical sensor on his new best friend. Eriana and the chubby meatbag Raggy lead the pack with the old Rebel Renato half a pace behind them while Jaina followed at the very back with Rjon. The annoyingly chatty and under-dressed Lana kept the annoyed and quiet Cora company a couple paces ahead of Jacen. It piqued HK-47's threat assessment database to note that both of them frequently looked back to regard The Master. He made a mental note to inform his Master about this irregular behaviour at his earliest discrete opportunity so he could suggest blasting the two female meatbags. After all, a safe master is a happy master.

They travelled at an average speed of three-point-eight-two kilometres per hour uphill across the rocky and pebbly terrain, a decent pace for meatbags. As decent a pace as it was, HK-47 was still finding himself at a loss as to which meatbag was annoying his processors the most.

Annor continually grumbled about the terrain, being kidnapped, his general displeasure about the unplanned excursion and the offers of violent motivation at blasterpoint. Cora spoke about her meatbag fiancé who had been sucked into space during the attack, and had the habit of breaking into sobs at odd times. Renato was quiet...too quiet for the appeasement of HK-47's threat assessment database. He was obviously distraught over the loss of his wrinkly old meatbag mate, which was no great loss in HK-47's reasoning, and was slowing the group down with his sombre pace.

Lana was the worst of the Black Vornskr members. While Rjon and Raggy admirably plodded along with blaster rifles at the ready and kept their eyes alert for any potential threats, Lana was proving to be the squeaky cog. With constant regularity she tried to strike up a conversation with The Master in the most obvious display of attention-seeking that HK-47 had witnessed in his long history of dealing with meatbags. Master Jacen resolutely remained silent, walking along with droid-like persistence on the long hike up the ravine. Witnessing his master behave so admirably reminded HK-47 of why he enjoyed his newest master.

The group as a whole did their best to keep together. At odd occurrences they would help each other traverse a fallen tree or aid one who had fallen over after clumsily stepping on a patch of terrain ill suited to their inferior footwear. There were odd times when Eriana and Raggy would get ahead of the group, or Jaina and Rjon would fall behind, but the centre cluster of travellers generally stuck together.

"Query: Are we there yet?"

Eriana stopped and consulted her map and chronometer. By HK-47's internal chronometer, three hours and twenty-two minutes and twelve-point-eight-six kilometres had been covered.

"We should stop and eat," she said. "It won't be long before we hit the end of the forest and have to head up the mountain."

"Up the mountain?" Annor demanded. "How do you expect us to get up a mountain?"

HK-47's blaster fired and the bolt hit the ground four point nine eight centimetres from Annor's left foot. The startled human jumped seventy two point eight centimetres into the air and fell over backward with a scream as he tried to get away from his guardian.

"It appears my trigger finger is rather jittery today," HK-47 said. "Perhaps we best traverse the terrain without queries of an idiotic nature in an effort to quell such a jittery trigger finger. Ha. Ha. Ha."

"This droid's insane," Annor said, mostly to himself. "I'm being shepherded by an insane droid with a blaster!"

"Statement: I am not insane, meatbag. My Maker had me tested."

"What did I tell you about upsetting the droid?" Jacen asked as he put the teenage girl down.

"I don't care what royalty you married into, assassin droids are illegal galaxy-wide!" Annor shouted. He grabbed the offered ration bar out of Eriana's hand with a huff and ripped open the packaging to eat it.

"Assassin droid?" Jacen asked as he took some ration bars from his pack on HK-47's back and started handing them out. "He's a translator."

"What exactly does he translate?" Cora asked, sitting beside Jacen and taking a ration bar from him.

"About a million languages and...umm...words into actions."

"Proud statement: It is wonderful to be understood by one's Master."

~! #$%^&*()

Hours passed before awareness came back to Sekava. Energized by _everything _around him, he took in the sunlight as it glistened on the charred remains of the forest. Only two things within ten metres of the young Sith Lord went unscorched, otherwise nothing was spared from Sekava's power that burned everything to a crisp in an intense inferno. Sekava looked down at his apprentice and noted that he was still in a healing trance, the wounds inflicted by Eriana nearly gone.

Sekava turned his back to Masakra and followed the intuition of the Force into the forest. He travelled for half an hour before one of the giant black cats found him. Hardly a thought was needed to overpower the beast's mind and turn it into a mount. Together they ran through the forest, seeking their prey.

Branches smacked across Sekava's face as the large cat ran between the trees until he began pushing them out of his way with the Force. Within minutes, Sekava started pushing larger branches and bushes and even trees aside to create a new path. Locked onto Jacen as a prime direction, Sekava pushed the cat to the ends of its endurance to run faster and harder through the trees. His control over its body let it feel the pain of exertion while still travelling at top speed for well over an hour. He saw a massive green and grey boulder taller than the trees themselves and urged the cat to climb it. Three bounds up the cat's claws lost traction on the moss and man and animal fell hard to the ground. Sekava took the brunt of the fall, and the cat landed nearly on top of him.

When Sekava woke, the cat was already gone, likely too terrified of the Sith Lord to risk making a meal of him. He got up and shook off the spinning headache, letting the Force wash away any residual fuzziness. With one Force-assisted leap, he jumped to the top of the boulder that had cost him his cat and looked out at the forest around him.

His mind still locked on Jacen, Sekava scanned the forest in the direction of his prey, somewhat near the first of the grey mountains that reached up out of the trees. His eyes caught some movement at the edges of a clearing just over two kilometres away. He used the Force to enhance his vision and watched as Solo's sister and the troublesome blonde entered the clearing. The sister turned to face Eriana, their body language suggesting a heated argument between them. Despite his best efforts to enhance his hearing, he could not make out any of their words.

A flash of light brought searing pain to Sekava's shoulder, spinning him around and dropping him to his knees. He picked himself up and looked back into the clearing. Eriana and Solo were now looking in his direction, and a rusty red droid entered the clearing with a rifle aimed at him. A second blaster bolt nearly took his head off, dodged at the last second on intuition from the Force. Sekava turned and jumped off the boulder. His shoulder jarred as he hit the ground and he fell over again. He picked himself up and headed back along the path he had created on his way through the forest. It would be a long hike back to find Masakra, leaving him plenty of time to heal.

~! #$%^*()

Eriana, Jaina, and HK-47 had spread out to patrol the area over lunch while Jacen decided to stay back with the other members of the team. His biggest concern was Erinn – she had been unconscious for almost sixteen hours in a healing trance and would need food to aid in the healing process. Using the Force, he pushed her body out of the healing trance and reduced the grogginess of waking up.

"What happened?" Erinn asked when she realized she was much closer to the mountain than she was the previous time she was awake.

"Here, drink this." Jacen held out a bottle of water. "How do you feel?"

"Pain's gone," Erinn said. Her hand went to the rip in her pants and noticed that the injury was almost healed over. "How...?"

"You have the ability to touch the Force," Jacen said softly, still holding out the water. "I was able to induce a Jedi healing trance to speed the healing along, but you need food and water to keep your strength up."

"Another Jedi?" Annor demanded. "What next? Are you going to tell us the Chancellor is a Jedi?"

"He's actually a Sith Lord," Jacen replied. "And he's the one who trained the guy hunting us. He's trying to kill me because he blames me for his...deteriorating mental health."

Annor stood up and stared at Jacen. Renato stepped up to Annor's side and Erinn shifted herself away from him. Even Lana looked at him with concern.

"You're the reason my wife is dead?" Renato asked.

"And my fiancé?" Cora asked.

"And my family? Erinn asked.

"And _you're_ the reason why we're stuck here!" Annor exclaimed with an expression half way between glee and anger. "The high and mighty Jedi who decided he can tell us what to do is the reason we're on this god-forsaken rock running for our lives? I say we turn him in and sell him to the Sith for our freedom!"

"Ye ain't gonna be sellin' nobody," Rjon said, hefting the butt of his blaster to his shoulder but still keeping the business end pointed to the ground. "'Specially not my friend here."

To emphasize his point, Lana and Raggy took up positions behind Jacen, blasters similarly prepared.

"I can handle this," Jacen said and stood up to face down Annor. The older man did not flinch despite the Jedi's solid stare. Annor still had a look of victory in his eye, but Jacen knew it was a false victory. It surprised him that someone in such a prestigious business position could be so stupid. With that conclusion, Jacen turned to face Renato.

"I'm sorry about your wife, Renato," Jacen said. He turned to Erinn and Cora. "And I'm sorry about your family, and your fiancé. And I'm sorry about what happened to Mala. And I'm sorry you're all stuck here on a mission you have no business being a part of with people you don't want to be with. But as sorry as any of us are, the fact remains that we're not out of this yet. Sekava is insane and devoted to hunting me down. I have looked into his mind and have seen the fractured remains of a decent person within fighting for some measure of sanity that he will never find. He's dangerous, unpredictable, and more prone to meaningless wonton violence than anyone I have ever known. And that's coming from someone who spent almost a year captured by the Yuuzhan Vong."

"Enough of this." Annor stepped forward and shoved Jacen. He seemed to be oblivious to the blasters pointed at him as he pointed a finger at the Jedi who barely moved from his attack. "You've already admitted that you're the target. You're only using us as a shield! I'll have no part of this. I'll find my own way off this planet. We don't need you, _Jedi_!"

Renato and Erinn nodded in agreement, but Jacen shook his head with a sigh.

"You seem to have forgotten that I wasn't even there when he attacked," Jacen said sadly. "He attacked _you_ because he's playing with _me_. If you leave, he'll kill you just to prove to me that I couldn't protect you. He doesn't care about anything except killing me and making me suffer. You would be nothing more than a pawn in his war against me. The safest place for you is with us."

Jaina and Eriana returned at that moment with HK-47.

"Let's go," Eriana said, grabbing her backpack and strapping it on. "Sekava's on the move again."

~! #$%^&*()

Twenty minutes of hiking from their break brought the motley group to the edge of the forest and to a wall of the hard grey igneous rock that made up the mountain. The river flowed from a waterfall that fell from the top of the kilometre-high wall, leaving the Jedi with the need to find a new route.

"According to the topographical maps this rock face tapers off to the left," Eriana said after consulting her datapad. "It should drop to about two hundred metres within the next five kilometres before ascending again. The place we're looking for is a plateau half way up the mountain."

"Then what?" Annor demanded.

"We climb," Eriana said with a tone of voice that indicated he should have picked up on the obvious. "Load up your water bottles here. We may not get another chance to fill them."

As everyone filled their bottles with water, the Jedi congregated slightly down river from the others, just outside of earshot to talk while they filled their own bottles.

"They won't be able to make the climb," Jaina said. "I don't think I'd make a two hundred metre climb without the Force. There's no way Renato or Erinn will be able to."

"We'll have to levitate them as a team," Jacen said. "One of us on top, the other two at the bottom."

"I'll take the top," Eriana offered. "I'll be able to climb it, and then we'll get HK-47 up there first. We have enough rope that he can anchor the safety line."

"You said Sekava's on the move?"

"We killed three more of those cats," Jaina said. "He's using them to hunt us. We could feel his control over them."

"They know Sekava's after me." Jacen gestured to the others with a nod. "They blame me for everything and want to break off. The Vornskrs stood up for me though."

"They'll be dead in under an hour if they break off," Eriana said. "We should keep moving. If they're going to sit around chatting, you can bet they'll be talking about running away from us."

~! #$%^&*()

The two hours of circling the sheer wall of the mountain proved far more treacherous than they had expected. The entire area was littered with slabs of rock that had sheared off the rock face and made the ground slippery and unpredictable. Each of the survivors and Vornskrs slipped at least a dozen times collecting bruises, cuts, and scrapes along the way.

"This was an idiotic idea," Cora said to Jacen as they trekked along. She had slowly gotten the young Jedi Master to open up to her, asking him a great many questions as they walked to pass the time about his life as a Jedi and prince. Lana walked on the other side of him, asking her own questions in an odd competition of sorts to gain his attention over Cora. Jacen, on the other hand, only wanted to talk to Erinn about her potential future as a Jedi. "I can barely walk on this stuff. I don't know how you haven't fallen once."

"The Force provides me insight," Jacen said dully, slipping ahead of her as they passed a narrow section of rock that started an incline away from the forest.

"I could use some of that Fo-oooooooh shavit!" Cora slipped on a loose rock and crashed backward onto Lana. Lana was able to grab a small rock outcropping to keep her balance, but with her blaster in hand she was unable to grab Cora. Cora slipped off the path, fell a metre to the steep incline, and tumbled toward the trees fifty metres below.

Erinn and Lana screamed, but Jacen leapt off the cliff and twisted through the air, landing about five metres ahead of Cora's tumble. He used the Force to gain his own traction and slow her descent. He scooped her up in his arms and used the Force to jump upwards over the cascade of rocks tumbling toward him. He took three jumps to get over the treacherous loose rocks on the descent and landed with his back to the wall on the path.

"That was amazing!" Lana breathed, but Jacen ignored her. He placed Cora on the path as everyone strained to see if she had survived.

"Get the first aid kit out of my pack," Jacen ordered. A second later he felt Lana sifting through it. "Bottom pouch, right on the outside."

"Here." Lana passed it over his shoulder to him.

Cora looked bad. Her left arm was clearly broken, twisted at an angle where no forearm should bend. The right side of her face was badly scratched, her cheek punctured through with a rock still embedded inside.

"Wha' appened?" Cora asked groggily.

Jacen took the strongest pain killer from the kit and jabbed it into her carotid artery.

"You fell. Your arm is broken, and you're in rough shape."

"Tha's...Jus' ...let the happy birdies sing..."

"At least the meds work," Jacen muttered. "Jaina! I need a splint."

"She's not going to make it," Erinn groaned from behind Jacen. "We're all going to die."

"Nobody's going to die," Rjon said. "Just shut yer mouth and we'll be fine."

"Do you see the insanity of this now?" Annor demanded from further up near Eriana. "Is your mission more important than our lives?"

"Jaina, the splint?"

"Here," Lana said, handing Jacen a blaster rifle barrel over his shoulder. "It's all we have short of rocks and twigs."

"We don't have anything!" Annor shouted in response. "We're on a deserted planet being marched to our deaths! Why are we still following these spice-heads?"

Jacen tore a strip from the bottom of his Yuuzhan Vong robe and stepped over to the other side of Cora.

"Statement: I believe it is time for you to change your attitude, meatbag."

"Hold it here while I tie it on, but first I have to reset the bone," Jacen ordered Lana, pointing to Cora's arm.

"I will _not_ be called a meat...ugh." A blaster bolt replaced Annor's voice and Jacen heard a body hit the ground, but he had to ignore it and the gasps of shock from everyone else.

"Cora, this is going to hurt."

"Hoppy tauntauns in the senate..."

Jacen jerked the bone into place, but Cora merely giggled.

"Initiated in fire..."

"What is she talking about?" Erinn demanded.

"Her brain is addled by the drugs," Renato said. "Saw it all the time in the rebellion. They never make any sense."

"Lana, the splint."

Lana put the blaster barrel on Cora's arm while Jacen tied the strip of living material into place.

"Please find some bacta patches, a cloth and the bottle of whisky," Jacen said as he ripped another strip of material that he used to secure the splint on her arm. "We need some on her face."

"Right," Lana said and handed him the whisky and cloth before she dug out a couple of patches. She prepared one, and, after taking a swig from the bottle, Jacen used the whisky to disinfect the injuries around Cora's face.

"Do you love me?" Lana asked Jacen.

"_What?_" Jacen demanded. "You think _now_ is the time to ask that?"

"I need to know," Lana said, tears forming in her eyes.

"No!" Jacen said. "I love my wife. Now...put that bacta patch down. We need one for the inside, too."

"Are you sure?"

"Why's everyone shouting?" Cora asked tearfully.

"I'm pretty sure we need a bacta patch on the inside of her cheek, yes."

"No, a-are you sure you don't love me. You can love more than one person."

Jacen stared at Lana with his mouth agape.

"I'm sure. Sorry."

"Oh," Lana said sadly. "Okay."

Jacen yanked the rock out and Lana slapped the first bacta patch on. Jacen took the second one and put it on while Lana supported Cora's head and held her mouth open.

"Are you really sure?" Lana begged.

"Dis marfmawow tase fuwwy," Cora said.

Jacen glared at Lana for a second and returned his attention to Cora. He ran his fingers down her sides and legs to check for blood, but none came up.

"Sure, you feel _her_ up," Lana pouted.

Jacen ignored her comment.

"It doesn't feel like anything is broken but there may be internal bleeding. There isn't much we can do about it without a medical facility though."

He pulled Cora's pant legs up a bit and tickled her ankles, getting the response he wanted as she kicked and giggled.

"Top dat!"

"No spinal injury," he concluded. "I'll carry her until the drugs wear off. Let's keep moving."

~! #$%^&*()

With Jacen carrying Cora the entire way and HK-47 carrying the unconscious Annor until he woke up, the team covered the last few kilometres slowly and much more carefully. Renato fell once and scraped his shin, but otherwise they arrived at the lowest point of the rock face without another incident. Peering up the wall, everyone felt daunted by the climb ahead.

"It doesn't look like there's a single footrest the whole way up," Jaina said upon examining the wall.

"We'll have to make some then," Jacen said. "HK, make us a ladder."

"Acknowledgement: Yes, sir!"

HK-47 took a few steps back and raised his blaster rifle.

"Warning: Master, I suggest everyone take cover. This may prove dangerous."

"Spread out," Jacen called.

When his threat assessment sensors indicated he could proceed, his right index digit squeezed the trigger and he raised the blaster up and back down the rock face. Eight hundred and eighty blaster bolts spaced half a metre apart left the peppered rockface glowing from the impacts, but it quickly cooled to provide the humans a ladder to climb. Hardly a pebble fell from the attack on the rock face.

"Query: Shall I proceed first?"

"I'm going first," Eriana said, already preparing herself physically and in the Force for the climb. "You follow me."

Eriana began climbing and a couple minutes afterward HK-47 followed.

"There's no way we can climb that," Raggy said to Jacen. "We're not Jedi and not even Rjon is in shape enough for that."

"You won't be climbing," Jacen said. "We'll levitate you up there."

"Levitate?"

"Float, fly, lift, whatever you want to call it. We're doing the hard work."

"What if ye drop us?" Rjon asked.

"One of us will be able to lift you up there," Jaina replied. "With three of us, the other two will be your safety net. We'll also tie a safety line to HK-47."

"May as well sit down and relax," Jacen said, dropping his pack and sitting down with his back against it. "It'll be a long wait."

~! #$%^&*()

The sharp pain of a boot against his ribs abruptly roused Masakra from his healing trance. He practically jumped to his feet from lying down and fumbled his lightsaber off his belt before he realized Sekava had woken him up.

"Good, you're awake," Sekava said. He tossed a chunk of charred meat at Masakra and began to depart the small scorched clearing.

"What happened?" Maskara asked, looking around the clearing in awe. He took a bite of the charred meat and nearly spat it back out.

"I found a new creature to help us," Sekava said with a menacing tone.

Masakra ran up to his master and noticed a blaster-bolt sized hole in his shirt, and a small patch of angry red, but healing, skin.

"What happened?" he asked again. "How long was I out?"

"I don't care," Sekava said, still plodding along through the forest. "You're alive, I'm alive, and we have people to kill. What is more important than that?"

Unable to disagree, Masakra fell in step with Sekava and followed his master through the path of destruction.


	15. Reunion

JRD – Those were a lot of fun to write. It still cracks me up reading parts of HK's thoughts :) Erinn needs to survive to become an apprentice...no promises at this point...except that there _will_ be a more deaths to come. You should know by now that nobody's safe when I write anything. As for her being willing to turn him in...she's 16. She lost her family, she's injured, she's being hunted by some psychopath with a lightsaber, she's being healed with some mystical power that she never knew she had...and she found out it's all because of the guy who has been taking care of her. I think it's sensible that she would want the easiest way out of it all.

* * *

Renato, Cora, Annor, Raggy, and Lana were the lucky ones. Rjon had remained behind with Jacen and Jaina on the ground after they had been lifted up, but while Erinn was in transit the cats attacked.

Jacen and Jaina both lost concentration at the same time, barely rolling out of the path of the two half-tonne felines before they could be beheaded by razor sharp claws. Erinn screamed as she dropped several metres before the safety line and Eriana caught her, and she continued screaming even then. Each cat picked a Jedi to eat, and each Jedi pulled out a lightsaber.

"You don't want to eat us," Jacen said, his eyes half-closed and his mind pressing into the feline's. "We taste bad. We taste like rocks."

The cat sneezed but Jacen could not get through to it. Sekava had too strong a hold on the feline. It pounced at him with claws ready to sink into its prey when its head exploded from a stream of blaster bolts fired from multiple angles. Jacen barely dodged out of the way as the massive dead cat thumped to the ground. Several more blaster bolts rang out and Jaina found herself with a smoking pile of dead cat at her feet.

Rjon and Jaina cautiously approached the cats to ensure they were dead, but were cautious of the people who fired the other blaster bolts. Jacen looked over to where the blaster bolts came from and smiled grimly at the young face staring back at him.

"Tahiri?" Jaina asked, mouth agape.

Lanos, Blade, Trigger and Tahiri extracted themselves from the forest and approached the twins, an impressive sight with the Mandalorian armour and weapons glinting in the sunlight. Jacen stepped forward and gave each of his former teammates a hug while Tahiri was getting the life squeezed out of her by Jaina.

"You're alive!" Jaina said, practically in tears as she embraced her friend.

"Not for long if you keep hugging me like this!" Tahiri choked and broke Jaina's grip on her.

"You knew?" Jaina demanded from her brother, correctly interpreting his lack of jubilation.

"I'll explain later," Jacen said. "You two catch up."

While Jaina riddled Tahiri with questions, Jacen turned to Lanos with his own.

"Where are Parmis and Squeak?"

"Squeak is repairing our ship," Lanos said. "The hyperdrive and one engine were damaged. We know the Sith are out there – I left Parmis with Squeak as a lookout. The ship will fly enough to get away from those idiots if necessary, but it won't break atmosphere yet."

"We'll have to hold out until they can come get us," Jacen said. "Sekava's coming after us and I can't let the civvies out of my protection until he's neutralized."

"Then let's neutralize him," Trigger said. Even with the helmet in the way, Jacen could see the wheels turning in the larger man's head and knew that somehow there would be explosives involved in whatever plan he had.

~! #$%^&*()_

The group finally made it to the top of the cliff and was able to travel another three kilometres along the winding narrow path that seemed to have been created by whoever built the temple above. It was wide enough for a hovercar to drive up, which gave the motley collection of hikers the chance to spread out a bit. Before long it was too dark to continue their trek. They found a relatively flat area and pitched the tent to let Renato, Cora, Erinn and Annor sleep within while the rest of them stayed outside under the moons and stars.

After a dinner of large portions of wild cat cooked over a campfire built from some wood that Trigger had the foresight to bring along with him, the Jedi cooked the rest of the meat that Blade had carved off the cats and packed it away for later meals. While it would be cold by the time it was eaten, it would provide enough protein to keep them going for a while.

"At least those overgrown furballs won't be chasing us up here," Trigger said. "One of those damned pussy cats nearly took my arm off back there."

"And I bet you would've used it to beat it to death with if they did," Jacen said, bumping fists with Trigger.

"We could use the food though," Eriana said. "We have quite the hike to do still, and, no offense, more mouths to feed."

"I was thinking about that, ma'am," Lanos said politely. "We could separate the group once we take care of our friend back there. My team will take the civvies back while you Jedi continue on with whatever mission brought you out here in the first place. Take whatever food you'd like - we can hunt for some more in the forest."

"The hard part will be taking him out," Jacen said. "He's getting better. I couldn't break his hold over the cat that faced off with me."

"It's always harder to break feral instinct," Eriana said. "Sekava's making them do something they want to whereas you were trying to stop them entirely. It isn't an easy game of tug of war to win."

"It's still frustrating to be beat at your own game."

Several moments of silence hung in the air as everyone stared at the fire.

"We should get some sleep," Rjon finally said, standing up and stretching. Raggy and Lana followed him quietly, and the Mandalorians followed suit a minute later, leaving the Jedi and HK-47 alone.

"HK, go set up the perimeter sensors," Jacen ordered, and the droid disappeared silently.

Tahiri, Jaina, Eriana and Jacen remained, staring into the fire silently. Three of them were considering the situation they were in, especially now with more assets in the field. Jaina's thoughts, however, were aligned elsewhere.

"How did you know?" Jaina finally asked her brother.

Jacen looked to Tahiri and back at his sister.

"Tahiri contacted me on Hapes to warn me about Sekava," Jacen said, only slightly stretching the truth. She had contacted him regarding Sekava, but only after he had saved her life on Orshan. "She and the others needed resources to keep hunting Sekava and they didn't want to go to the Jedi. They knew he was after me, and decided I could help them given my position in Hapes."

"Lanos saved my life on Korriban," Tahiri back-tracked for Jaina's benefit. "After the message from Sekava to the Jedi Council, my injuries were relatively minor even though they looked bad."

She pulled up her shirt to show off a nasty scar extending horizontally from a quarter of the way into her ribcage just below her breast. The light of the fire flickered shadows that made it appear more gruesome, even though the damage had healed over long ago.

"Lanos thought Jacen would show up there to kill Sekava, so they decided to set a trap," Tahiri continued. "They found me instead. I convinced them that Soora was the true enemy and that he had to be stopped. It didn't take long for us to realize we couldn't take Soora on ourselves, but we could nibble away at the edges of his influence and try to make some contribution to his demise."

"But why didn't you come back to us?" Jaina asked, almost pleading with the girl who had nearly become her sister-in-law.

"Pride," Tahiri admitted with a thick voice, refusing to take her eyes off the fire. She cleared her throat before continuing. "Sekava took me down. I needed to redeem myself."

A mental nudge from Jacen stopped Jaina from pursuing the obvious lecture about the dangers of pride and holding a vendetta. Sometimes she saw things as too black and white to see the rainbow of colours beneath. The red of her anger. The yellow of her focus. The green of her determination. The blue of her resolve. The violet of her passion.

Everyone fell quiet again, staring at the fire as it burned lower. Jacen resisted the urge to throw another log on it, but knew that their reserves were enough for maybe one more meal's worth of cooking. Dead cat definitely tasted better warmed over a real fire.

Something was bothering Jacen, nagging at the edges of his mind, but he could not put his finger on it.

"Do you think he'll attack tonight?" Eriana asked. She looked out over the forest below as if she might catch a glimpse of the psychotic Sith Lord who was hunting them.

"He might," Jaina said. "He's a coward, so he'll fight on his terms. I doubt he'll use the cats again. It'd take a lot of effort to get them up here."

"HK's sensors are pretty good," Eriana said. "I helped design them myself. We should get a fair warning if he decides to try anything."

As if on cue, HK-47's voice sounded from between Jacen and Eriana.

"Warning: Master, I believe we have a problem."

"What is it, HK?" Jacen asked the droid. He had not heard the droid return, but he sensed it.

"It appears that the meatbag Annor has disappeared from the tent," HK-47 reported. His head cocked to one side. "Warning: One of my alarms has been tripped."

Jacen barely noticed an object sailing toward them out of the corner of his eye. The Jedi jumped away as it landed in the fire, scattering the embers. The object itself rolled toward Jacen and stared at him with unseeing eyes in the dim moonlight.

It was Annor's head.

~! #$%^&*()

Six lightsabers flared to life and the Jedi charged toward the tent with the three remaining civilians in it. They called to the Vornskrs and Mandalorians to wake up, but the seasoned warriors were already on their feet with blasters drawn. Eriana threw one lightsaber at the tent and carved it around the outside while Jacen ripped the top off with the Force. Inside the dismantled tent were three awaking civilians, oblivious to the threat but terrified by the actions of the Jedi.

"What's going on?" Erinn asked as Tahiri and Jaina took up position on either side of the ruined tent. "Where's Annor?"

The Mandalorians filed in around the two Jedi and the Vornskrs flanked Jacen and Eriana as they made a wall of lightsabers across the mountain pathway. As always, HK-47 took his position at Jacen's side, blaster pointed over his master's shoulder.

"Stay behind us," Jaina warned. "We'll let you know when it's safe."

Uneventful moments of silence passed like an eternity as the Jedi waited for something to happen.

"See anything?" Jacen asked as his danger sense went wild.

"Report: Many _things_ are approaching, Master," HK-47 reported.

A low trembling started so softly that the Jedi barely even felt it. After a minute it increased to a dull rumble. A few moments later rocks began to shake visibly in the moonlight.

"We have movement," Blade shouted.

"Open fire!"

"Where?"

"Anywhere, there are hundreds of them!"

The Vornskrs, Mandalorians and assassin droid open fire on full automatic, spraying the stampede with lethal flashes of light while the Jedi used telekinetic shockwaves to slow the attack. It took several moments as the stampede closed, but Jacen finally noticed that they were some sort of mountain goat, obviously under the control of Sekava. From in the midst of the stampeding goats, two figures jumped out of them high into the air.

"Behind us!" Jacen shouted, turning as he watched the two figures land behind their defensive line. "Trigger, now!"

A powerful explosion went off behind Jacen and a red lightsaber appeared behind Raggy to cut him in half. As the chubby man fell in two pieces, the sweep hit Rjon's arm but Jacen caught the blade and pushed the attacker back before Rjon's arm was severed.

"Masakra," Jacen said, recognizing the Bothan even in the dim light.

"Have we met before, Jedi?"

"I killed you once before," Jacen said. "It's funny how future repeats itself."

Jacen barely noticed Eriana's yellow blades sparring with Sekava's red blades as he launched his attack on the Bothan. Jaina wanted to help her brother, but he insisted she stay to guard the civilians. Tahiri had already raced toward Eriana and Sekava leaving only Jaina and the Mandalorians to protect the civilians against the still stampeding goats.

Using Mawkashi fencing techniques, Jacen quickly shifted the fight backward, pushing Masakra away from the civilians and defensive line. With his green lightsaber in one hand and his body turned to minimize his profile, he thrust toward Masakra several times while using the blade angle to deflect any returned strikes. With more room to work with, Jacen ramped up the intensity of his attacks, feinting and slashing to force the Bothan into a retreat to catch his footing. Both opponents enjoyed the moment of distance, using the time to analyze their enemy.

"You fight well," Masakra said. Jacen could sense the fear penetrating his bravado.

"Stand down and we'll help you leave this place," Jacen offered. "Fight me, and you'll die."

"Sekava said the one I kill first will cement my place as a Sith Lord," Masakra said. "It is _you_ who will die."

Masakra lunged toward Jacen with a feint and twisted the blade in the air to try catching him off guard, but Jacen easily deflected the attack. The Bothan kept a narrow profile to Jacen, emphasizing his strengths as a fencer and used quick attacks with precise footwork to try getting through the Jedi's guard. Deciding to give Masakra the opportunity to mess up, Jacen kept a wider stance, using his twin blades to deflect the blows with Soresu and make him appear more open to goad the Bothan into a clumsy attack that he could use to his advantage. Unfortunately, the Bothan was too good to make a critical error. His strikes were sharp, his defences fast, and his footwork impeccable.

Jacen heard Eriana and Tahiri scream and decided playing with Masakra was far too time consuming.

_He's a sword master,_ Jacen thought. _He hasn't learned how to fight with a lightsaber like in the future, so he's used to fighting guys who only know how to use swords. Time to show him what a Jedi can do._

He used the Force to pull Masakra's leg on his next lunge and intercepted the blade with his right lightsaber close to the hilt. He pushed the blade as far out as he could and flicked it from his opponent's hand. Using the Force to speed his movements tenfold, he spun around in the blink of an eye and smashed his brother's lightsaber pommel against the Bothan's head with enough force to shatter his skull. The Bothan dropped, never to rise again.

Having neutralized Masakra, Jacen looked around to assess the situation. Eriana was hoisting herself from the edge of the cliff, Tahiri was jogging back from further up the path, and Sekava was gone.

"Where is he?" Jacen demanded, running over to Eriana to help her up.

"He did some kind of telekinetic shove that launched both of us away," Eriana said, picking her lightsabers off the ground. "I was too busy trying to grab onto the side of the cliff to see where he went."

Jacen ran back to join Jaina and the others. Rjon was on the ground cradling his lightsaber burn with one arm while pointing the blaster toward the direction the goats had come from. In that direction there was a large smoking crater of rocks that had fallen from above – thanks to Trigger's mines. None of the other civilians appeared hurt except –

"Where's Lana?"

Eriana, Jaina, Lanos and Tahiri came to his side.

"He must have grabbed her and taken off as we were finishing up the goats," Jaina said.

_Jedi Solo! You killed my apprentice!_ A telepathic message from Sekava pierced into the Jedi's minds. _Now I've stolen one of yours. If you want this sweetie back, come and take her before I do!_

"You keep going," Jacen said darkly. "I'll get her back."

Before anyone could protest, Jacen sprinted toward the crater and leapt over it with a single bound.

"He can't face that guy alone," Jaina said. "I'm going with him."

"No." Tahiri stopped Jaina with a hand on her shoulder before she could run off. "I'll go. I know Sekava better than you do. You and Eriana keep going. Lanos, take HK-47 and bring the civilians back to the ship. Jacen and I need to end this."

Tahiri took off after Jacen without waiting for another complaint. Left with no other options, Jaina and Eriana began splitting up the group.


	16. Sacrifices

JDR - Jacen retrieved Jysella and brought her back to the Jedi, so all Jedi know about her. She doesn't know about Tahiri though. Annor got out when everyone was eating around the campfire. Sekava knows that any person Jacen has with him is a tool to use against him...that's about it.

Sioux - Lana will calm down...one way or another ;)

Onimi - I hated writing the prick, too.

Please, enjoy :)

* * *

Five minutes of flat out sprinting finally brought Jacen within sight of Sekava and Lana. She was draped over his shoulder and likely unconscious given the lack of protest or screaming. A telekinetic shove sent them sprawling and Sekava came up with lightsabers lit.

"_Finally!_" Sekava shouted in jubilation. "My freedom is at hand!"

"I won't let you harm anyone else," Jacen said. "You wanted me, so here I am. Leave everyone else out of this."

"It's like they always say," Sekava said, his acid green and yellow eyes practically glowing in the moonlight. "If you work hard enough at something, you'll get what you want."

Jedi and Sith regarded each other in the pale moonlight and they both came to the grim realization before them. One of them would not walk away from the coming fight.

"You can't win, Sekava. I've beat you before, and I'll do it again. Give up and I'll help you."

"The famed help of the Jedi," Sekava mocked, seemingly amused by the suggestion. "What will you do? Take away my lightsabers? Teach me the path of weakness?"

He spat at Jacen, but from metres away his spittle fell far too short.

"I'm _sick_ and fraking _tired_ of your Jedi sympathy!"

Sekava let out a war cry and charged at Jacen, lightsabers blazing through the night at his sides.

Jacen lit his lightsabers and sprinted toward the oncoming Sith. Their blades clashed in an X and they pushed off each other. Jacen swung with his right blade, catching Sekava's left block and twisted his left around Sekava's left to push him off balance. Sekava spun around to bring a heavy attack with his right blade and Jacen ducked to let the Sith Lord spin around without opposition. Sekava's spin stopped when Jacen brought his right hand in a powerful uppercut driven from his knees that launched Sekava off his feet and back several metres.

"Jacen?" Lana's voice called from the darkness, but Jacen ignored it.

Sekava used the momentum from the uppercut to complete a back flip and landed in time to intercept Jacen's furious attack. With his opponent switching to Vaapad, Sekava found himself backpedalling as he struggled to keep up with the onslaught of unpredictable slashes from both blades at all sides. Just as Sekava struggled to defend, Jacen could not lay a blade on his opponent. The relentless attack was met with an impenetrable defence that made him realize how this insane warrior could keep up with Eriana and Tahiri combined. Somehow by going feral Sekava had achieved a level of lightsaber mastery equal to Jacen's own, or perhaps even surpass him. Drawing on his frustration and anger, Jacen drove his attack forward, pushing Sekava closer and closer to the edge of the cliff through the sheer intensity of his enraged attacks. There was no room in Jacen's heart to let this man live to fight another day. Vicious lightning flared down Jacen's lightsabers, sparking and snapping against Sekava as the Sith Lord absorbed the physical and electrical blows.

As Sekava backed toward the edge of the cliff, he realized he was losing a battle of attrition and decided to switch strategies. He chucked his left lightsaber toward Lana and used his right to continue blocking Jacen's blows.

The gambit paid off.

Jacen split his attention for a fraction of a second to deflect the lightsaber before it hit Lana and Sekava slashed his blade toward Jacen's head, passing the Jedi's guard before he could react. Jacen helplessly watched in slow motion as the blade tore a path through the darkness.

And then there was only the light of Jacen's own lightsabers.

He blinked when he realized that Sekava was no longer in front of him. After a moment of recollection he realized that last thing he saw was a cloud of blond hair.

"Tahiri!" Jacen shouted. He rushed to the side of the cliff and saw a dark figure falling with two red lightsabers, but the Force told him that Sekava was not alone.

! #$%^)%^&*

Tahiri followed the path Jacen had taken, but was not able to match the speed of the determined Jedi Master. She picked her way through the bodies of the mountain goats that had been slaughtered by the Black Vornksrs and Mandalorians before resuming her run down the only path that Jacen could have taken. It did not take her long before she heard Sekava's shouts and the clashing of lightsaber blades. As she ran along, she reflected that the battle sounded more intense than the one she had just had with the crazed Sith Lord and wondered if only two people were fighting. As she rounded the last corner of the path, she saw Jacen driving Sekava to the edge of the cliff and could sense the Sith Lord was up to something. She ignited her lightsaber and sprinted towards the battle just as Sekava threw his left lightsaber away.

_Why…Lana!_ Tahiri thought. She felt Jacen sway his concentration from the attack for a fraction of a second as he pushed the twirling lightsaber out of her path and saw Sekava's face break into a victorious grin. His lightsaber descended through Jacen's guard toward his face, and Tahiri did the only thing she could.

She sprinted right into him with all the speed the Force could give her.

Together, Jedi and Sith plunged over the cliff and fell to the depths below.

"You crazy Jedi!" Sekava shouted. He used his lightsaber to cut through her back, nearly bisecting her, but she still hung onto him. "You'll be dead and I'll save my fall. The Force is my ally, but you're just dead meat!"

"Not if I stop you," Tahiri said through the pain and tears. Using the last remains of her strength she drew on the Force to throw his lightsabers away and stop him from drawing on the Force. With every essence of her being, she did everything she could to suppress his control over the Force.

"What are you doing?" Sekava shouted fearfully. "I-I-…"

_I'm coming to see you, Anakin_, Tahiri thought as she watched the ground near. _I'll be home soon._

Just before he hit the ground, Sekava realized there was no body holding onto him anymore, just an empty Jedi robe. And somehow he still felt the Jedi whelp stopping him from using the Force.

"Well played, Solo."

! #$%^&*()

The dark figure hit the ground below and burst into a cloud of dark blue energy before retreating in on itself. Jacen's questions were answered by the Force.

Sekava was dead.

And so was Tahiri.

The girl his brother loved, who had been like a sister to him, had been one of the few who understood the hell he went through at the hands of the Yuuzhan Vong…gone.

"Jacen?" Lana tentatively approached the Jedi and placed a hand on his shoulder. "Was that…?"

"Yeah," Jacen said, still kneeling at the edge of the cliff staring at the ground below. He sniffed his nose and wiped the tears from his eyes. "It was…" He choked. He could not even say the name of his friend. "It was her."

Lana knelt down beside him and put an arm around his shoulder. Despite the difficult friendship between them, Jacen hugged her and sobbed his grief away against her shoulder.

After several minutes, Jacen stopped crying and simply rested against Lana to think about the sacrifice his friend had made for him. Tahiri had put her entire life into protecting him from Sekava for over a year, but he never expected her to give it up for his sake.

"We should get back to the others," Lana said, easing Jacen off her shoulder. "They'll be expecting us."

"I suppose," was all Jacen could manage to say.

Jacen looked around and saw an object a couple metres away. He put his lightsabers back in the holsters and, using the Force, he called the object to his hand. He forced himself to his feet and Lana rose with him. As he clipped the object, Tahiri's lightsaber, to the holster beside his brother's lightsaber, a gentle breeze picked up from below, forcing Jacen to smile.

"What is it?" Lana asked.

"She found him," he replied, fully knowing that Lana would have no idea what he was talking about. "She's home."

! #$%^&*()

The flat mountain path to the temple finally opened up to a large stone mesa with two skiffs landed on it. One skiff, the one practically blocking the path as Jaina and Eriana approached, was marked with the logo of the Jedi Council.

"What are they doing here?" Jaina whispered as she and Eriana crouched behind the landing gear.

"Karrde must have gone to Luke," Eriana said. "That was our backup plan if something happened to me."

"Why did we need to be here if you were going to call in the Council anyway?" Jaina hissed.

"They call it a backup plan for a reason," Eriana hissed back. "I didn't want to risk more lives than necessary. Karrde must have thought we were killed on the cruise attack, especially if the captain was killed. Nobody else knew to look for our shuttle."

Both women sat in silence for a few minutes assessing the area.

"I don't see anything out there," Jaina said, craning her neck to look around at the mesa one last time. "They must be inside."

"Keep yourself small," Eriana warned. "I don't want to give away our presence until we have to."

The two women left their hiding spot from behind the skiff and ran toward one of the giant stone pillars carved along the wall of the temple entrance, Eriana taking point. They entered the temple, proceeding slowly to give their eyes time to adjust to the poor lighting. Torches lined the hallway every ten metres, burning their hidden fuel supplies to cast an eerie orange glow against the light grey rock. As the hallway began to curve and descend, Eriana and Jaina followed along the outside wall to maximize their visibility through the tunnel. Adding to the foreboding nature of the tunnel, the deeper the Jedi continued into the tunnel, the stronger they could sense the darkness emanating from below.

Minutes or hours later, they finally found a giant pair of ornate wooden doors blocking the tunnel. The left door was open about a metre, spilling a soft orange glow into the tunnel as if to invite the Jedi in to a fiery death. A cool, dank breeze blew out of the door, gently wafting the Jedi's hair and sending a shiver down their spines.

"I don't hear anything," Jaina whispered to Eriana. Even the whisper seemed too loud, echoing up the tunnel.

Eriana shook her head in agreement and extracted a small flat device from her pocket. She unwound a cable wrapped around the outside edge and activated the device. The display flickered for a few moments before Jaina realized the small cable had a camera on the end. Eriana held the camera around the door and twisted it to get a better view. The image showed an orange glow, but no real detail, so Eriana switched it to night vision. The green image showed a giant chamber behind the doors with a massive statue of a Sith Lord along the far wall. Both of its hands extended from the floor palms up like claws holding prey, and the giant head had white flames burning out of the eyes. Between the hands was an altar, a stone slab with a sole figure lying across it, and another standing in front of it.

Jaina tapped Eriana's shoulder and pointed to the ground between the door and the altar. She adjusted the view on the camera and she saw what Jaina had spotted – there were bodies littering it. Bodies in Jedi robes.

"Come in, Eriana Fostenon!" A deep rumbling voice emanated from the chamber. "I have been expecting you!"

Eriana and Jaina exchanged glances, and Eriana shrugged. Replacing the device in her pocket, she pulled her lightsabers free from her belt and entered the temple chamber. Jaina extracted her own lightsaber and followed her brother's friend into the eerie chamber.

! #$%^&*()

The Mandalorians and HK-47 marched their charges down the mountain path, turning a corner and almost shooting Jacen and Lana in the process. Jacen took a blaster bolt off his palm from Trigger's shot, saving Lana from a severe hole in her head.

"Good shot, Trigger," Jacen commented as he held the blaster bolt energy in his palm like a glowrod. "Where are Jaina and Eriana?"

"Went up to the temple," Lanos replied. "Where's Tahiri?"

Jacen's silent head shake gave him all the answer the Mandalorians needed. Blade and Trigger looked away, but Lanos stepped forward.

"Eriana tasked us to bring this lot to our ship," Lanos said. If it was not for the Force, Jacen would not know the pain his old leader felt. "I presume you'll want to join her and your sister."

"Yes, Lana will go with you." Jacen looked over the crowd. "Where's Cora?"

Everyone looked around at each other with surprise.

"She was with us when we left," Renato said.

"She must be lost," Erinn said. "We have to find her!"

"She ain't lost," Rjon said, drawing everyone's attention. "She went to help Eriana. Told me herself."

Intuition sang to Jacen through the Force, sending a shiver down his spine. He closed his fist, extinguishing the blaster bolt.

"No," Jacen said. He reached down and pulled his own lightsaber from the holster on his right leg and activated the bright green blade. "Cora went to kill her."

! #$%^&*()

Like sheep to a slaughter, Eriana and Jaina entered the chamber in silence at Soora's request. They stepped over the body parts of the dead Jedi littering the floor trying not to look down at them to see who they were. They reached the first of the five stairs and stopped beside the body of Corran Horn. Jaina looked down at the old friend of her family, one hand draped over an injury on his side that could only have been made by a lightsaber.

"What stupid scheme are you up to now?" Eriana asked the Weequay Sith Lord. "If you're offering him as a sacrifice, you'll probably just piss off whatever ghost you're trying to impress."

Jaina looked up at the altar and finally recognized who was on it – Kyp Durron.

"Nice to see you too," Kyp said through gritted teeth. Jaina could sense the pain radiating off her friend, almost echoing off the walls around her. "Some help would be nice, Jaina."

"Jaina Solo?" Soora asked with a broad smile. "You must be the sister of Jacen. I will enjoy making you watch as I rip out your heart and eat it while it still beats."

"You'll have to get through me first," Eriana said. "Last time we fought, you had a hard time doing that."

"Since then..."

"Don't even give me that 'I've grown more powerful than you'll ever imagine' shavit," Eriana said. To Jaina, she merely sounded tired, as if the conversation was making her bored. "Stand down and get the hell out of here, or I'll make you leave."

Soora was over the table and had his lightsabers descending on Eriana in a flash, clashing against Eriana's twin yellow blades before Jaina could activate her lightsaber. Eriana pushed Soora back with the Force and her lightsabers and advanced on the Weequay when a hand grabbed Jaina's ankle. She spun and nearly cut it off before she realized it was Corran.

"Jaina," Corran croaked. He held his lightsaber defensively his other hand, but his grip was weak. "Free Kyp. She can take him. Amulet is in the altar. Soora said a living sacrifice's blood will open it. He wants to bleed Kyp dry. I'll be fine."

Jaina nodded and rushed up to Kyp's side. He was bound by five heavy stone hooks sunk deep into the altar, one at the neck, wrists, and ankles. She grabbed one of the stone hooks to raise it, but a shock pulsed through her hands almost driving her back a full metre from the altar.

"Need to use the Dark Side," Kyp said painfully. "They don't respond to the Light."

"I could use my lightsaber," Jaina suggested, but Kyp shook his head.

"Energy deflects it. Must use the Force."

"I swore I'd never use the Dark Side again," Jaina said. "After last time..."

"This is bigger than us," Kyp said. "Kill me if you have to, but he can't get the amulet. It's too powerful!"

Jaina glanced back at Eriana fighting with Soora. Both were moving so fast she could barely make out anything more than a ball of yellow light beside a ball of red light as the vicious clashes of electricity echoed through the chamber.

She looked back at Kyp helplessly and swore.  
"Fine!"

She reached into the darkness and found the altar dripping with what she could only define as death. She used her anger to pull the stone off Kyp's neck and throw it to the side. She lifted the stones on his wrists and a piercing pain in her right side broke her concentration, slamming them down hard on Kyp again. She fell to the ground against the altar screaming, raising her lightsaber in defense and activated it. She barely noticed that Kyp had screamed as well.

"Cora?" Jaina demanded. "What are you doing?"

"Serving my Emperor," Cora replied. She activated a blue lightsaber and held it toward Jaina. "Soora showed me the true path. He sent me and my master to search for Jacen, and I couldn't believe my luck when I saw him boarding the cruise ship. I knew I had to follow you when my master was killed in the attack, and now I will be rewarded for killing one of the Solo twins."

Jaina shoved Cora with the Force and sent the woman tumbling down the stairs. She used the Force to yank the knife out of her side and stem the bleeding, but the pain staggered her almost to her knees.

Cora was back at Jaina's side, lightsaber swinging at her head before Jaina was ready. Jaina dropped and rolled away from the strike to give herself time to bring her guard up and caught the next blow on her lightsaber as Cora advanced.

"Only a coward stabs someone in the back," Jaina said weakly. The room began to spin around her as she backed away from the deranged woman. "And it takes a real bitch to use poison."

"Don't worry," one of the three Coras in Jaina's blurred vision said. "It won't kill you. I needed to even the playing field. I can't use the Force, but I still plan on killing you."

Cora attacked with an overhead chop and Jaina entirely trusted the Force to keep herself safe. Her vision was so blurred everything was blue, violet, black or orange and the echoing clashes of Eriana and Soora's battle pounded through her skull, further disorienting her. She felt her arms move and block the attacks, never sure if her next movement would be her last. She fell back against the face of the giant angry Sith Lord and felt the heat of the eye-fires radiating down from above her.

A blue slash. A purple block. The Force was the only thing keeping Jaina alive until she tripped over something and fell to the ground. She heard her lightsaber clatter against the ground and roll away to her right, leaving her defenceless. The blue blur rose up, ominously hanging above her ready to claim her life, and Jaina closed her eyes.

Something warm splattered across Jaina's face and something solid hit her chest, completely winding her.

"Jaina?" Jacen's voice came from beside her as she curled over in pain. She could sense his presence before he grabbed her head and put a hand on her abdomen, forcing her to stretch out painfully. She could feel his healing touch through the Force, and after a few seconds her vision cleared and she could breathe normally.

"What happened?" Jaina asked. She finally looked around and saw a bloody mess of a body impaling the stone face of the Sith Lord beside her.

"Cora was a spy," Jacen said. "As I'm sure you already figured out. Eriana's holding Soora at bay. What's going on with Kyp and the other Jedi?"

"Kyp's a sacrifice. We need to get him off the altar."

Jaina tried getting up and Jacen aided her to her feet. She held onto him, one hand hanging from his shoulder and the other arm held against her side like a wounded bird.

"I'll take care of it," Jacen said and reached to grab the stone holding Kyp's left wrist in place.

"No!" Jaina and Kyp said together.

Jacen looked back at his sister, his hands almost touching the stone.

"You need to use the Dark Side to remove the stones," Jaina said. "They're protected."

Jacen grinned the way that made him look so much like their dad.

"Haven't you been listening to me? There is no Dark Side."

Jacen stepped back and gestured to the stones. They rose up easily and he flicked them to the side easily, freeing Kyp from the altar.

"Can you fight?" Jacen asked.

"Wrists are broken," Kyp said, sitting himself up and holding his hands in front of himself helplessly. "Jaina dropped the stones on me when she got stabbed."

"Can you use the Force?"

"Yes."

"Then get Jaina and Corran out of here. The others are dead. I'm going to finish Soora once and for all."

"Are you sure you'll be able to do it this time?" Kyp asked, his glare harsh.

Jacen merely returned the harsh glare and walked away.

! #$%^&*()

The dance of Vaapad utterly consumed both Jedi and Sith in a chaotic, controlled routine of incredible speed, accuracy and technique. Eriana, the classic Jedi, fought with no visible emotion but brimmed with the sheer joy and excitement of battle blending the techniques of all seven forms and her own two-handed variation of the Jensaarai fighting style to keep Soora off balance and defend herself as only few Jedi in history ever could. Soora, the Master Lord of the Sith, fought with his all the rage in his heart to fuel his relentless attack on Eriana, his former student. Together they created a superconductive loop of fury passing into joy, and joy back into fury, allowing neither the edge over the other to finish the fight.

Soora was the first to break, jumping backwards clear of Eriana's reach to avoid an unexpected horizontal slash from a form change that he scarcely sensed.

"You have come a long way since I first showed you this form," Soora said approvingly. "Join me and together we can rule the galaxy. No Jedi could ever stand before us."

"Yes, and we can get statues of us made so everyone on planets everywhere will know how hideous you look compared to me," Eriana said, shifting her stance to ready herself for any attack. "Is that the best you can do? We'll rule the galaxy together? I don't want to rule. I don't want to be a Sith Lord. I'm happy being exactly who and what I am."

"Happy being a fool?" Soora sneered, shifting his stance to test her reaction.

"Yeah, but she's a smart fool," Jacen said from behind Soora, drawing his attention away from her. He held two balls of multi-coloured glowing light, one in each hand. "The difference is, you're _just_ a fool."

He threw one of the balls at the Sith Lord and pulled a replacement out of the other ball of light. Soora deflected the ball on his lightsaber, but it merely absorbed into the blade. Jacen threw three more which were all aborbed by Soora's lightsabers until he held only one ball of light in his left hand.

"Is that the best you can do?" Soora mocked.

"Yes, it is," Jacen said. He raised his right hand and squeezed it shut, crushing the internal components of both of Soora's lightsabers using the energy they had absorbed to direct his power. He lobbed the last ball of light at the shocked Sith Lord, catching him square in the chest and blasting him off his feet five metres back against the wall where he slid down, unconscious.

"What was that?" Eriana asked, cautiously moving to Jacen's side with her lightsabers still ready to defend herself from Soora.

"He will never touch the Force again," Jacen said grimly. "For him, it's a fate worse than dying."

"What should we do with him?"

"Give him to the Jedi for prosecution," Jacen suggested. "Or we could leave him naked in the middle of the forest for all I care."

Jacen grabbed the hem of his Yuuzhan Vong robe and ripped a strip of the tough fibre off. He walked over to Soora, flipped the Sith Lord over, and tied his wrists and ankles together. With his Vongsense he convinced the cloth to do it's very best to not untie itself and, satisfied with his work, he stood up to face his friend.

"Can we destroy that talisman and get off this fraking planet?" Eriana finally asked.

"I thought you'd never ask."


	17. A lost dream

Onimiman - I was going to have her sneeze to death five years ago, but my editor wouldn't let me. I've been wanting to see her dead since 2001. She's lucky I did it this way as far as I'm concerned :P

SiouxFan - I had to kill someone :) I think Jacen is getting a lot of people who he is good working with as I continue this reality...sometimes it is good to thin the ranks. Kyp is...Kyp. Ever arrogant and constantly believes he knows better than anyone else. That was a reference to when Jacen hesitated on Coruscant and didn't take Bulq out when he had the chance. Of course, I had to have Jacen come up with his own solution like he did with Sekot to end the Vong war, not do what was expected of him by the peanut gallery. And by peanut gallery, I mean Kyp. Because he has a peanut for a brain, and if you look in one of his ears I'm sure you'd see it surrounded by a glass case :)

* * *

After arriving at Fountain Palace on Hapes, hardly an hour had passed before Eriana, Jacen and Jaina stood in a special convening of the Jedi Council with Masters Skywalker, Durron and Horn present. The rest of the Council members attended the meeting by holonet connection. At the conclusion of the lengthily three part narrative detailing the events of the Solo mission, Jacen tossed one third of a small brass talisman to his uncle.

"And that's part of what's left of the talisman we destroyed," Jacen said. "Eriana and I have decided to each keep one third of it safe, and we're entrusting the last third to the Jedi Order so it can never be assembled again."

"Why not toss it into a black hole or a sun?" Kyp asked, gesturing with one completely bandaged up hand.

"It took the combined efforts of both of us to break it into three parts," Eriana said. "We were going for four pieces. It is incredibly resistant, even in its current state. I've never seen anything like it."

"We're convinced it is useless in its current state," Jacen said. "But don't worry. We'll find some good hiding spots for the other two parts and take the secret to our graves."

"Seven hundred and twenty eight sentients, and five Jedi Knights," Luke said quietly, looking squarely at his niece and nephew. "That's how many were killed on your _espionage_ mission to investigate, not a missing talisman, but _suspected pirate activity_. Was it worth it?"

"Yes," Eriana said without hesitation.

"I wasn't talking to _you_," Luke said coldly. "You'll be lucky if I don't have you arrested for operating a pirate organization and interfering with Jedi affairs."

Any response from Eriana was cut off by Jacen.

"I've seen what that talisman can do," Jacen said. "It grants the wearer immortality and incredible focus in the Force. It also gives the wearer the ability to inspire others, drawing them into whatever is said. It gives any Sith Lord the ability to be the next Palpatine. So, yes, when you consider the tyranny that Palpatine ruled with where billions were killed and trillions were enslaved, it was essential that we destroyed it. Keep in mind we also exiled the leader of the Sith Empire, and Tahiri sacrificed herself to kill one of the most ruthless serial killers among the Sith ranks. I won't begin to try justifying the cost against the result, but at the end of the day I think we made the galaxy a slightly better place to live in."

"Let's hope you're right," Luke said.

Jacen's wrist chirped and his eyes went wide.

"Go," Luke said, and both twins disappeared without another word. The entire Council turned their attention to Eriana.

"What are we going to do with you?" Luke asked.

"Endorse her," Mara's voice came from the door Jacen and Jaina had just disappeared through. She walked into the chamber and took her place at Eriana's side. "Not publically, just give her the room to do what she has already done. The Black Vornskrs have done a great job protecting and supporting the Jedi. It is time we recognized her contribution to the Jedi Order by allowing her to continue her work in partnership with the Jedi Council rather than behind its back."

"What do you know of the Black Vornskrs?" Kyp asked, speaking for both him and Luke.

In unison, Mara, Corran, Kyle, Kenth and Lowbacca extracted their sapphire rings and bracelet from their hiding spots, put them on, and held them out for the rest of the Council to see.

"We are Black Vornskrs."

! #$%^&*()_

Jaina and her parents waited anxiously in the waiting room in the Royal Hapan Medical Facility with Prince Isolder and young Anakin. Isolder paced nervously while Han and Leia held hands, whispering to each other. Jaina paced on the opposite side of the room holding Anakin, who still did not seem to know if he could trust her. Eventually Jaina sat down and let Anakin visit his grandparents who passed him along as he got bored of each of them. After a while, Jaina ended up with Anakin again, for what reason she did not know. He spent the next hour staring at her with an angry look while everyone continued their own means of passing the time. As the minutes and hours ticked by, Jaina could sense her brother going through a whole range of emotions while at Tenel Ka's side ranging from excitement to fear, and even surprise.

Finally the door opened, and Jacen appeared with one of the biggest grins Jaina had ever seen on her brother's face.

"It's a girl!" He said breathlessly. "Tenel Ka is taking a nap and Allaya is with the doctors for some tests."

"Congratulations!" Leia said and hugged Jacen. Han and Isolder hugged him next, followed by Jaina. For some reason, he could not quite look her in the eye as he took his smiling first born away from her.

"Somebody has a new sister," Jacen said to Anakin. "Are you excited?"

Anakin made a gleeful sound and waved his hands up and down, which made Jaina wonder if he understood what his dad had told him.

"Prince Isolder? Mister and Missus Solo?" A nurse called from the door Jacen had come through minutes before. "Your daughter would like to see you. You can all come in now if you'd like."

Jaina grabbed her brother's sleeve and told her parents to go ahead. Leia came back and took Anakin with her and proceeded to follow the nurse. When they were alone, Jaina looked him in the eye and saw a note of fear that he had tried very hard to hide. Tears began to well up in his eyes and he tried to blink them away.

"What's wrong?" Jaina asked. "Is something wrong with Allaya?"

"Physically she's healthy," Jacen said, a tear rolling down his cheek. He sniffed to clear his nose and looked away to wipe the tears away. "She can't touch the Force, Jaina. Allaya can never be a Jedi."


	18. Evolution

Onimi - I felt Soora was better left to the side. Sekava held so much more potential in comparison since Soora was under chains of a political nature. Adding Soora to the mix in the forest would've been unimaginable, so I left himtot he end. Plus, if I wrote about him, then how would you know if they were even going to find him at the end or not? :D

Sioux - Luke's reaction was more due to them signing on for an espionage mission and then going off on an unauthorized treasure hunt. Rogue behaviour = bad.

I won't be around on Friday, so I figured I'd post a bit early, especially since it is the last chapter. Enjoy...

* * *

In the week following Allaya's birth, the Solo and Skywalker family remained on Hapes to enjoy the new addition to their family. Everyone pitched in to gave Jacen and Tenel Ka breaks from Anakin so they could tend to the newborn Allaya, and they all participated in the official Hapan naming ceremony when the new member of the royal family was introduced to the Hapes Consortium.

Luke and Mara were the first to leave, their presence requested by Chief of State Drathan, the leader of the Jedi Coalition, to address the issue of the Black Vornskrs. Han and Leia decided to stay for at least another week. At Jacen's request, they took both of their grandchildren for a few hours while he, Jaina, and Tenel Ka attended a private ceremony of their own.

At Reef Fortress, the childhood summer home of Tenel Ka, the three Jedi stood in the room he had once stayed in for a month half his life ago. Over the years since the Yuuzhan Vong war began, Tenel Ka had slowly converted the giant reverse aquarium into a hall of memories for the fallen Jedi so some part of them may survive in one of the most peaceful places she had ever known. Around the room, over fifty pedestals stood, each projecting a holographic image of the Jedi whose name was engraved on the pedestal below. Tenel Ka had taken the time to record her own words and memories about each of the fallen Jedi and, whenever possible, had retrieved their lightsaber to rest with their image.

Two pedestals remained deactivated at the farthest side of the room from the door, a metre in front of the three friends. Without a word, Jacen removed two lightsabers from his belt and placed one on each pedestal, simultaneously activating the holographic displays of his brother, Anakin Solo, and the girl his brother almost married, Tahiri Velia.

"I never liked her." Tenel Ka broke the silence, laughing softly. "She annoyed me at best and complained constantly about everything. But she saved each of our lives as many times as anyone I know, and I will forever be grateful to her for that."

"The first time I met her," Jaina said, choking back a laugh against her tears. "She looked like a spooked womprat coming off the shuttle on Yavin 4 for the first time with Uncle Luke. Anakin ran right up to her and dragged her off the shuttle to show her around. I don't think they left each other's side for over three weeks."

Jacen grabbed Tenel Ka's hand and squeezed it, still staring into Tahiri's bright holographic eyes.

"They both died to protect me," Jacen said. "And I probably deserved it the least of anyone."

Jaina and Tenel Ka both looked at him with shock.

"It isn't that surprising," Jacen admitted without looking at them. "I had decided not to be a Jedi anymore and gave up everything they stood for. I went along on the mission that got Anakin killed because I was worried that, without me, everyone would fall into darkness. It was selfish and arrogant of me. It took his death to make me realize what it meant to be a Jedi, when he already knew long before me.

"And when did I ever learn from my mistakes? I'm the one who let Sekava loose on the galaxy. I was the catalyst, fracturing his mind until the only thing left was a shard of humanity amid a sea of hatred and rage. He killed hundreds of people because of me. I should have stopped him sooner, and now Tahiri is gone because of another of my failures."

"You didn't fail us, Jacen," Anakin Solo's voice spoke. A misty blue form of Anakin in brown and beige Jedi robes appeared beside the hologram of him and a second later Tahiri appeared in similar robes beside her hologram.

"We're together now, forever," Tahiri said, smiling at Anakin. The scars from her imprisonment with the Yuuzhan Vong were gone, and she looked genuinely happy for the first time that Jacen could remember in a long time. "By sacrificing ourselves to save you, we both got what we wanted."

"Thank you, big brother," Anakin said. "May the Force be with you."

Both ghosts faded away, and Jacen finally smiled in return.

! #$%^&*()

The main audience chamber for the Queen of Hapes in Reef Fortress was not as elaborate as the chamber in Fountain Palace, but the collection of people awaiting the royal family would have looked out of place anywhere they might have assembled on Hapes. Lanos, Parmis, Trigger, Blade, Squeak, Rjon, Lana, Erinn, Eriana and Astro mingled patiently waiting for Jacen, Jaina and Tenel Ka to return from somewhere below that they had disappeared to. Upon their return, Jacen climbed the three step platform, leaving Jaina and Tenel Ka beside Eriana and Erinn.

"You're all wondering why I asked you here," Jacen said. "Eriana and I have talked about this, and we think it is time for a bit of evolution. We can think of nobody better suited than you.

"You all know about the Black Vornskrs. Those among the ranks of pirates wear rings of copper, silver, bronze, gold and platinum, supporting the operations of the sapphire ring members that have helped the Jedi Coalition more than the Jedi Council itself has in the last year. You, my friends, will take this one step further."

He stepped down and extracted ten dark green rings from his pocket, each bored from a solid piece of emerald. He began passing them out to each of them as he spoke.

"While the sapphires respond to Eriana, you will be my team. A special black ops team to take on what nobody else can do to keep the Jedi Coalition safe from outside threats."

Jacen stopped beside Jaina and Erinn and handed them the last two rings.

"Jaina, I'd like you to take Erinn as your new apprentice. I can't think of a better mentor right now."

Jacen returned to the stage with Eriana and Astro joining him.

"You're welcome to enjoy our hospitality for a few days while we determine the best course of action. Eriana and I will be working together on your deployment."

Everyone followed Tenel Ka out of the audience chamber toward the transport that awaited them, but Eriana and Astro stayed behind with Jacen as the others trickled out.

"Karrde caught some bad news while you were downstairs," Eriana whispered, worried that someone might hear her. "Soora somehow escaped Charnack. He was spotted on Coruscant."

"I had a feeling he might escape," Jacen said quietly. "He probably had someone waiting just outside the system. What was he doing? Rallying the senate and putting another bounty on me?"

"Dying," Eriana replied. "He was publically executed by some guy calling himself Darth Krayt."

* * *

A/N: So, we're at the end of One cut deeper... I hope you enjoyed it. Either way, please take the time to drop a review if you haven't all along (or even if you have) as I'd love to hear your feedback to improve my writing for the future. The next installment will come out...eventually :) Stay tuned!


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